Two-dimensional topological superconductivity in Pb/Co/Si(111).
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 29230031.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-017-02192-x and PMC identifier 5725560.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Just like insulators can present topological phases characterized by Dirac edge states, superconductors can exhibit topological phases characterized by Majorana edge states. In particular, one-dimensional topological superconductors are predicted to host zero-energy Majorana fermions at their extremities. By contrast, two-dimensional superconductors have a one-dimensional boundary which would naturally lead to propagating Majorana edge states characterized by a Dirac-like dispersion. In this paper we present evidences of one-dimensional dispersive in-gap edge states surrounding a two-dimensional topological superconducting domain consisting of a monolayer of Pb covering magnetic Co-Si islands grown on Si(111). We interpret the measured dispersive in-gap states as a spatial topological transition with a gap closure. Our method could in principle be generalized to a large variety of heterostructures combining a Rashba superconductor with a magnetic layer in order to be used as a platform for engineering topological quantum phases.