  IrTe2, a layered compound with a triangular iridium lattice, exhibits a
structural phase transition at approximately 250 K. This transition is
characterized by the formation of Ir-Ir bonds along the b-axis. We found that
the breaking of Ir-Ir bonds that occurs in Ir1-xPtxTe2 results in the
appearance of a structural critical point in the T = 0 limit at xc = 0.035.
Although both IrTe2 and PtTe2 are paramagnetic metals, superconductivity at Tc
= 3.1 K is induced by the bond breaking in a narrow range of x > xc in
Ir1-xPtxTe2. This result indicates that structural fluctuations can be involved
in the emergence of superconductivity.
