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Electric switch found for a superconductor

Ferroelectricity has been found in a superconducting compound. Strong coupling between these two properties enables ferroelectric control of the superconductivity, which could prove useful for quantum devices.
  1. Kenji Yasuda

    1. Kenji Yasuda is in the Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.

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When some materials are cooled, their electrons flow without friction. This is a property known as superconductivity, which makes them lose their electrical resistance at ultralow temperatures. Superconductivity is particularly promising for the development of quantum devices, and the ability to switch between a superconductor and a normal metal adds an extra functionality to such devices —information storage. Writing in Nature, Jindal et al.1 report that the superconductivity of ultrathin sheets of the semimetallic compound molybdenum ditelluride (MoTe2) coexists with another property, called ferroelectricity, that can be used to switch the material’s superconductivity on and off.

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Nature 613, 33-34 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-04491-w

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Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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