Coexisting electronic smectic liquid crystal and superconductivity in a Si square-net semimetal
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2026
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| _version_ | 1866908840301166592 |
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| author | Butler, Christopher J. Ikenobe, Toshiya Jiang, Ming-Chun Hirai, Daigorou Yamada, Takahiro Guo, Guang-Yu Arita, Ryotaro Hanaguri, Tetsuo Hiroi, Zenji |
| author_facet | Butler, Christopher J. Ikenobe, Toshiya Jiang, Ming-Chun Hirai, Daigorou Yamada, Takahiro Guo, Guang-Yu Arita, Ryotaro Hanaguri, Tetsuo Hiroi, Zenji |
| contents | Electronic nematic and smectic liquid crystals are spontaneous symmetry-breaking phases that are seen to precede or coexist with enigmatic unconventional superconducting states in multiple classes of materials. In this Letter we describe scanning tunneling microscopy observations of a short ranged charge stripe (smectic) order in NaAlSi, whose superconductivity is speculated to have an unconventional origin. As well as this we resolve a clear spatial modulation of the superconducting gap amplitude, which arises due to the intertwined superconducting and smectic orders. Numerical calculations help to understand the possible driving mechanism as a suppression of kinetic energy on the Fermi surface formed in part by two large, flat-topped hole pockets of p-orbital character. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_10939 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Coexisting electronic smectic liquid crystal and superconductivity in a Si square-net semimetal Butler, Christopher J. Ikenobe, Toshiya Jiang, Ming-Chun Hirai, Daigorou Yamada, Takahiro Guo, Guang-Yu Arita, Ryotaro Hanaguri, Tetsuo Hiroi, Zenji Superconductivity Materials Science Electronic nematic and smectic liquid crystals are spontaneous symmetry-breaking phases that are seen to precede or coexist with enigmatic unconventional superconducting states in multiple classes of materials. In this Letter we describe scanning tunneling microscopy observations of a short ranged charge stripe (smectic) order in NaAlSi, whose superconductivity is speculated to have an unconventional origin. As well as this we resolve a clear spatial modulation of the superconducting gap amplitude, which arises due to the intertwined superconducting and smectic orders. Numerical calculations help to understand the possible driving mechanism as a suppression of kinetic energy on the Fermi surface formed in part by two large, flat-topped hole pockets of p-orbital character. |
| title | Coexisting electronic smectic liquid crystal and superconductivity in a Si square-net semimetal |
| topic | Superconductivity Materials Science |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.10939 |