Interface-induced superconductivity in magnetic topological insulators

Hemian Yi^#¹, Yi-Fan Zhao^#¹, Ying-Ting Chan^#², Jiaqi Cai^#³, Ruobing Mei¹, Xianxin Wu⁴, Zi-Jie Yan¹, Ling-Jie Zhou¹, Ruoxi Zhang¹, Zihao Wang¹, Stephen Paolini¹, Run Xiao¹, Ke Wang⁵, Anthony R Richardella^{1

5}, John Singleton⁶, Laurel E Winter⁶, Thomas Prokscha⁷, Zaher Salman⁷, Andreas Suter⁷, Purnima P Balakrishnan⁸, Alexander J Grutter⁸, Moses H W Chan¹, Nitin Samarth^{1

5

9}, Xiaodong Xu^{3

10}, Weida Wu², Chao-Xing Liu¹, Cui-Zu Chang^{1

5}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
² Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA.
³ Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
⁴ CAS Key Laboratory of Theoretical Physics, Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
⁵ Materials Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
⁶ National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87544, USA.
⁷ Laboratory for Muon Spectroscopy, Paul Scherrer Institute, 5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland.
⁸ NIST Center for Neutron Research, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899, USA.
⁹ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 38330133
DOI: 10.1126/science.adk1270

Interface-induced superconductivity in magnetic topological insulators

Hemian Yi et al. Science. 2024.

. 2024 Feb 9;383(6683):634-639.

doi: 10.1126/science.adk1270. Epub 2024 Feb 8.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
² Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA.
³ Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
⁴ CAS Key Laboratory of Theoretical Physics, Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
⁵ Materials Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
⁶ National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87544, USA.
⁷ Laboratory for Muon Spectroscopy, Paul Scherrer Institute, 5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland.
⁸ NIST Center for Neutron Research, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899, USA.
⁹ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 38330133
DOI: 10.1126/science.adk1270

Abstract

The interface between two different materials can show unexpected quantum phenomena. In this study, we used molecular beam epitaxy to synthesize heterostructures formed by stacking together two magnetic materials, a ferromagnetic topological insulator (TI) and an antiferromagnetic iron chalcogenide (FeTe). We observed emergent interface-induced superconductivity in these heterostructures and demonstrated the co-occurrence of superconductivity, ferromagnetism, and topological band structure in the magnetic TI layer-the three essential ingredients of chiral topological superconductivity (TSC). The unusual coexistence of ferromagnetism and superconductivity is accompanied by a high upper critical magnetic field that exceeds the Pauli paramagnetic limit for conventional superconductors at low temperatures. These magnetic TI/FeTe heterostructures with robust superconductivity and atomically sharp interfaces provide an ideal wafer-scale platform for the exploration of chiral TSC and Majorana physics.

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Interface-induced superconductivity in magnetic topological insulators

Affiliations

Interface-induced superconductivity in magnetic topological insulators

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

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