Suppression of metal-to-insulator transition and stabilization of superconductivity by pressure in Re3Ge7

Abstract

The effect of pressure on the low-temperature states of the Re3Ge7 is investigated by both electrical and Hall resistance and magnetization measurements. At ambient pressure, the temperature dependent resistance of Re3Ge7 behaves quasi-linearly from room temperature down to 60 K, then undergoes a two-step metal-to-insulator transitions (MIT) at temperatures T1 = 59.4 K and T2 = 58.7 K which may be related to a structural phase transition or occurrence of charge density wave ordering. Upon applying pressure, the two-step (T1, T2) MIT splits into three steps (T1, T2 and T3) 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, Tc, and upper critical field, Hc2 reach the maximum of Tc (onset) ~5.9 K and Hc2 (1.8 K) ~ 14 kOe. Our results not only present the observation of SC under high pressure in Re3Ge7 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 Re3Ge7.