Anomalous thickness dependence of the vortex pearl length in few-layer NbSe2

Nofar Fridman; Tomer Daniel Feld; Avia Noah; Ayelet Zalic; Maya Markman; T. R. Devidas; Yishay Zur; Einav Grynszpan; Alon Gutfreund; Itai Keren; Atzmon Vakahi; Sergei Remennik; Kenji Watanabe; Takashi Taniguchi; Martin Emile Huber; Igor Aleiner; Hadar Steinberg; Oded Agam; Yonathan Anahory

doi:10.1038/s41467-025-57817-3

Article Anomalous thickness dependence of the vortex pearl length in few-layer NbSe2

Nofar Fridman ; Tomer Daniel Feld ; Avia Noah ; Ayelet Zalic ; Maya Markman ; T. R. Devidas ; Yishay Zur ; Einav Grynszpan ; Alon Gutfreund ; Itai Keren ; Atzmon Vakahi ; Sergei Remennik ; Kenji Watanabe (National Institute for Materials Science) ; Takashi Taniguchi (National Institute for Materials Science) ; Martin Emile Huber ; Igor Aleiner ; Hadar Steinberg ; Oded Agam ; Yonathan Anahory

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Nofar Fridman, Tomer Daniel Feld, Avia Noah, Ayelet Zalic, Maya Markman, T. R. Devidas, Yishay Zur, Einav Grynszpan, Alon Gutfreund, Itai Keren, Atzmon Vakahi, Sergei Remennik, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Martin Emile Huber, Igor Aleiner, Hadar Steinberg, Oded Agam, Yonathan Anahory. Anomalous thickness dependence of the vortex pearl length in few-layer NbSe2. Nature Communications. 2025, 16 (), 2696. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-57817-3

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A common thread in condensed matter physics is the coexistence of multiple types of orders. Understanding the competition among these orders is essential for developing comprehensive physical models. Unconventional superconductors are prototypical systems where the physics is determined by competing orders. The nature of superconducting orders may be unveiled by analyzing a local perturbation such as vortices. In particular, for thin films, the vortex magnetic profile is characterized by the Pearl length Λ , which is inversely proportional to the 2D superfluid density; hence, normally, also inversely proportional to the film thickness, 𝑑. Here we employ the scanning SQUID-on- tip microscopy technique to directly measure the Pearl length in NbSe2 films with thickness ranging from 3 to 53 layers. For films thicker than ten layers, we indeed find the expected dependence Λ ∝ 1⁄𝑑. However, six- layer films show a sharp increase of Λ deviating by a factor three from the expected value. This value remains fixed for films ranging from three to six layers. This unexpected behavior suggests the competition between orders where one order parameter resides only on the first and last layers of the film while the other is spread in all layers.

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