Pressure-induced superconductivity and structure phase transition in Pt2HgSe3
Cuiying Pei, Suhua Jin, Peihao Huang, Anna Vymazalová, Lingling Gao, Yi Zhao, Weizheng Cao, Changhua Li, Péter Nemes‐Incze, Yulin Chen, Hanyu Liu, Gang Li, Yanpeng Qi
Abstract
Abstract Recently monolayer jacutingaite (Pt 2 HgSe 3 ), a naturally occurring exfoliable mineral, discovered in Brazil in 2008, has been theoretically predicted as a candidate quantum spin Hall system with a 0.5 eV band gap, while the bulk form is one of only a few known dual-topological insulators that may host different surface states protected by symmetries. In this work, we systematically investigate both structure and electronic evolution of bulk Pt 2 HgSe 3 under high pressure up to 96 GPa. The nontrivial topology is theoretically stable, and persists up to the structural phase transition observed in the high-pressure regime. Interestingly, we found that this phase transition is accompanied by the appearance of superconductivity at around 55 GPa and the critical transition temperature T c increases with applied pressure. Our results demonstrate that Pt 2 HgSe 3 with nontrivial topology of electronic states displays a ground state upon compression and raises potentials in application to the next-generation spintronic devices.