Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Superconductor Tunneling Devices: A Review
Abstract
We review recent progress in the study of transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) superconductors—such as NbSe 2 2 and TaS 2 2 —-in tunnel devices where the barrier is also a van der Waals material. Superconducting TMDs are of particular interest due to their lack of in-plane centrosymetry, leading to Ising superconductivity: conventional s -wave superconductivity where the internal spin axis of Cooper pairs is held out of plane by the Ising spin-orbit field. The devices reviewed are fabricated by placing ultrathin barriers—typically few-layer insulating TMDs—on top of an exfoliated superconductor and subsequent patterning of tunneling electrodes. This results in high-quality normal-insulator-superconductor (NIS) tunnel junctions, which enable the measurement of superconducting spectra with fine energy resolution, down to dilution refrigerator temperatures (below 100 mK). As reported by the authors and others, these spectra reveal intricate signatures of TMD physics from the bulk to the 2D limit. We report on studies showing the two-band superconducting character of (bulk) NbSe 2 2 , revealing different depairing processes in the two different NbSe 2 2 bands. These two bands also appear in the spectral weight of vortex-bound subgap states. At high in-plane magnetic fields, many unconventional superconducting phases have been predicted, which are not necessarily mutually exclusive: triplet, orbital Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO), striped FFLO, pair density wave, nematicity etc. We report on the spectral evolution of NbSe 2 2 at high in-plane magnetic fields, which we interpret as evidence for odd-parity equal-spin triplet superconductivity. Finally, we present our vision for addressing these and other open questions with vdW tunneling devices.
Related
- Three-photon photoemission on metallic transition metal dichalcogenide NiTe2
- Theory of resonance Raman profiles in transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers: Interference effects due to inter-valley phonon scattering
- Keldysh field theory of spin- and valley-distinguished polariton nonlinearities in transition-metal dichalcogenide monolayers
- Flexoelectric Polarization in Wrinkled Janus Transition-Metal Dichalcogenide Monolayers
- Spatially-resolved multiphoton photoemission from a lateral transition metal dichalcogenide heterostructure
BibTeX
@article{steinberg2026transition,
title = {{Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Superconductor Tunneling Devices: A Review}},
author = {Hadar Steinberg and Shahar Simon and Marco Aprili and Charis Huei Li Quay},
journal = {Journal of Superconductivity and Novel Magnetism},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.1007/s10948-025-06918-7},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05853586v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Superconductor Tunneling Devices: A Review
AU - Hadar Steinberg
AU - Shahar Simon
AU - Marco Aprili
AU - Charis Huei Li Quay
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/05
JO - Journal of Superconductivity and Novel Magnetism
DO - 10.1007/s10948-025-06918-7
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05853586v1
AB - We review recent progress in the study of transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) superconductors—such as NbSe _2 2 and TaS _2 2 —-in tunnel devices where the barrier is also a van der Waals material. Superconducting TMDs are of particular interest due to their lack of in-plane centrosymetry, leading to Ising superconductivity: conventional s -wave superconductivity where the internal spin axis of Cooper pairs is held out of plane by the Ising spin-orbit field. The devices reviewed are fabricated by placing ultrathin barriers—typically few-layer insulating TMDs—on top of an exfoliated superconductor and subsequent patterning of tunneling electrodes. This results in high-quality normal-insulator-superconductor (NIS) tunnel junctions, which enable the measurement of superconducting spectra with fine energy resolution, down to dilution refrigerator temperatures (below 100 mK). As reported by the authors and others, these spectra reveal intricate signatures of TMD physics from the bulk to the 2D limit. We report on studies showing the two-band superconducting character of (bulk) NbSe _2 2 , revealing different depairing processes in the two different NbSe _2 2 bands. These two bands also appear in the spectral weight of vortex-bound subgap states. At high in-plane magnetic fields, many unconventional superconducting phases have been predicted, which are not necessarily mutually exclusive: triplet, orbital Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO), striped FFLO, pair density wave, nematicity etc. We report on the spectral evolution of NbSe _2 2 at high in-plane magnetic fields, which we interpret as evidence for odd-parity equal-spin triplet superconductivity. Finally, we present our vision for addressing these and other open questions with vdW tunneling devices.
SN - 1557-1939
SN - 1557-1947
ER -