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Charge order and superconductivity in kagome materials

Nature Physics volume 18, pages 137–143 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

Lattice geometry, topological electron behaviour and the competition between different possible ground states all play a role in determining the properties of materials with a kagome lattice structure. In particular, the compounds KV3Sb5, CsV3Sb5 and RbV3Sb5 all feature a kagome net of vanadium atoms. These materials have recently been shown to exhibit superconductivity at low temperature and an unusual charge order at high temperature, revealing a connection to the underlying topological nature of the band structure. We highlight these discoveries, place them in the context of wider research efforts in topological physics and superconductivity, and discuss the open problems for this field.

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Fig. 1: Topological band structure of AV3Sb5.
Fig. 2: Electronic and magnetic duality of the charge order in AV3Sb5.
Fig. 3: Intertwined superconductivity in AV3Sb5.

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Acknowledgements

We thank S. A. Kivelson, C. Varma, F. D. M. Haldane, S. Wilson, Z. Wang, Q. Wang, J. Hu, Q. Si, P. Dai and Z. Guguchia for stimulating discussions. We also thank X. Liu for helpful DFT calculations and visualizations. This project received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant no. ERC-StG-Neupert-757867-PARATOP). R.T. was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) through Project-ID 258499086-SFB 1170 and through the Würzburg-Dresden Cluster of Excellence on Complexity and Topology in Quantum Matter-ct.qmat Project-ID 390858490-EXC 2147. Work at Princeton University was supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (grant nos. GBMF4547 and GBMF9461; M.Z.H.). The theoretical work and sample characterization were supported by the United States Department of Energy (US DOE) under the Basic Energy Sciences programme (grant no. DOE/BES DE-FG-02-05ER46200; M.Z.H.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Titus Neupert & M. Michael Denner

  2. Laboratory for Topological Quantum Matter and Advanced Spectroscopy (B7), Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA

    Jia-Xin Yin & M. Zahid Hasan

  3. Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany

    Ronny Thomale

  4. Department of Physics and Quantum Centers in Diamond and Emerging Materials (QuCenDiEM) Group, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India

    Ronny Thomale

  5. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA

    M. Zahid Hasan

  6. Princeton Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA

    M. Zahid Hasan

  7. Quantum Science Center, Oak Ridge, TN, USA

    M. Zahid Hasan

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  1. Titus Neupert
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Correspondence to Titus Neupert, M. Michael Denner, Jia-Xin Yin, Ronny Thomale or M. Zahid Hasan.

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Neupert, T., Denner, M.M., Yin, JX. et al. Charge order and superconductivity in kagome materials. Nat. Phys. 18, 137–143 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-021-01404-y

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