Suppression of metal-to-insulator transition and stabilization of superconductivity by pressure in Re 3 Ge 7
The effect of pressure on the low-temperature states of the Re 3 Ge 7 is investigated by both electrical and Hall resistance and magnetization measurements. At ambient pressure, the temperature-dependent resistance of Re 3 Ge 7 behaves quasilinearly from room temperature down to 60 K, then undergoes a two-step metal-to-insulator transition (MIT) at temperatures T 1 =59.4K and T 2 =58.7K, which may be related to a structural phase transition or occurrence of charge-density wave ordering. Upon applying pressure, the two-step (T 1 ,T 2 ) MIT splits into three steps (T 1 ,T 2 . and T 3 ) above 1 GPa, and all traces of MITs are fully suppressed by ~8 GPa. Subsequently, the onset of bulk superconductivity (SC) occurs between 10.8 and 12.2 GPa and persists to our highest pressure of 26.8 GPa. At 12.2 GPa the superconducting transition temperature, T c , and upper critical field, H c 2 reach the maximum of T c (onset) ~5.9 K and H c 2 (1.8 K) ~14 kOe. Finally, our results not only present the observation of SC under high pressure in Re 3 Ge 7 but also delineate the interplay between SC and other competing electronic states by creating a T-p phase diagram for this potentially topologically nontrivial system Re 3 Ge 7 .