Enhancement of Ising superconductivity in monolayer NbSe2 via surface fluorination

Abstract

Recently discovered Ising superconductors have garnered considerable interest due to their anomalously large in-plane upper critical fields (B_c2). However, the requisite strong spin-orbital coupling in the Ising pairing mechanism generally renders these superconductors heavy-element dominant with notably low superconducting transition temperatures (T_c). Here, based on the Migdal-Eliashberg theory and the mean-field Bogoliubov-de Gennes Hamiltonian, we demonstrate a significant enhancement of Ising superconductivity in monolayer NbSe₂ through surface fluorination, as evidenced by concomitant improvements in T_c and B_c2. This enhancement arises from three predominant factors. Firstly, fluorine atoms symmetrically and stably adhere to both sides of the monolayer NbSe₂, thereby maintaining the out-of-plane mirror symmetry and locking carrier spins out-of-plane. Secondly, fluorination suppresses the charge density wave in monolayer NbSe₂ and induces a van Hove singularity in the vicinity of the Fermi level, leading to a marked increase in the number of carriers and, consequently, strengthening the electron-phonon coupling (EPC). Lastly, the appearance of fluorine-related, low-frequency phonon modes further augments the EPC. Our findings suggest a promising avenue to elevate T_c in two-dimensional Ising superconductors without compromising their Ising pairing.