• Accepted Paper

Enhanced superconductivity at quantum-critical KTaO3 interfaces

Jieun Kim, Muqing Yu, Ahmed Omran, Jiangfeng Yang, Ranjani Ramachandran, William O. Nachlas, Patrick Irvin, Jeremy Levy, and Chang-Beom Eom

Phys. Rev. Lett. - Accepted 13 October, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/jkkp-z93h

Abstract

Superconductivity at oxide interfaces has intrigued researchers for decades, yet the underlying pairing mechanism remains elusive. Here we demonstrate that proximity to a ferroelectric quantum critical point dramatically enhances interfacial superconductivity in KTaO3. By precisely tuning KTaO3 to its quantum critical composition through 0.8% niobium doping, we achieve a near-doubling of the superconducting transition temperature, reaching 2.9 K (3.0 K under electrostatic gating). Remarkably, a dome-shaped carrier density dependence emerges exclusively at the quantum critical point. Our findings establish ferroelectric quantum criticality as a powerful mechanism for enhancing superconductivity and provide strong circumstantial evidence for soft-phonon-mediated pairing in these systems.

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