A new Majorana platform in an Fe-As bilayer superconductor.
basic_science · Level V
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- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 33173056.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-020-19487-1 and PMC identifier 7655862.
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Abstract
Iron-chalcogenide superconductors have emerged as a promising Majorana platform for topological quantum computation. By combining topological band and superconductivity in a single material, they provide significant advantage to realize isolated Majorana zero modes. However, iron-chalcogenide superconductors, especially Fe(Te,Se), suffer from strong inhomogeneity which may hamper their practical application. In addition, some iron-pnictide superconductors have been demonstrated to have topological surface states, yet no Majorana zero mode has been observed inside their vortices, raising a question of universality about this new Majorana platform. In this work, through angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy measurement, we identify Dirac surface states and Majorana zero modes, respectively, for the first time in an iron-pnictide superconductor, CaKFe<sub>4</sub>As<sub>4</sub>. More strikingly, the multiple vortex bound states with integer-quantization sequences can be accurately reproduced by our model calculation, firmly establishing Majorana nature of the zero mode.