Observation of topological superconductivity in a stoichiometric transition metal dichalcogenide 2M-WS2

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-23076-1

Authors: Y. W. Li (ShanghaiTech University; University of Oxford; ShanghaiTech Laboratory for Topological Physics) , H. J. Zheng (ShanghaiTech University; ShanghaiTech Laboratory for Topological Physics; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences) , Y. Q. Fang (Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Science; Peking University) , D. Q. Zhang (China Jiliang University; Nanjing University; Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing) , Y. J. Chen (Tsinghua University) , C. Chen (ShanghaiTech University; ShanghaiTech Laboratory for Topological Physics; Advanced Light Source) , A. J. Liang (ShanghaiTech University; ShanghaiTech Laboratory for Topological Physics) , W. J. Shi (ShanghaiTech University; Shanghai high repetition rate XFEL and extreme light facility (SHINE), ShanghaiTech University) , D. Pei (University of Oxford) , L. X. Xu (ShanghaiTech University; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences) , S. Liu (ShanghaiTech University; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences) , J. Pan (Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Science) , D. H. Lu (Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource) , M. Hashimoto (Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource) , A. Barinov (Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste) , S. W. Jung (Diamond Light Source; Gyeongsang National University) , Cephise Cacho (Diamond Light Source) , M. X. Wang (ShanghaiTech University; ShanghaiTech Laboratory for Topological Physics) , Y. He (University of California at Berkeley) , L. Fu (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) , H. J. Zhang (Nanjing University; Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing) , F. Q. Huang (Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Science; Peking University) , L. X. Yang (Tsinghua University; Frontier Science Center for Quantum Information, Beijing) , Z. K. Liu (ShanghaiTech University; ShanghaiTech Laboratory for Topological Physics) , Y. L. Chen (ShanghaiTech University; University of Oxford; ShanghaiTech Laboratory for Topological Physics; Tsinghua University)
Co-authored by industrial partner: No

Type: Journal Paper
Journal: Nature Communications , VOL 12

State: Published (Approved)
Published: May 2021
Diamond Proposal Number(s): 125135

Abstract: Topological superconductors (TSCs) are unconventional superconductors with bulk superconducting gap and in-gap Majorana states on the boundary that may be used as topological qubits for quantum computation. Despite their importance in both fundamental research and applications, natural TSCs are very rare. Here, combining state of the art synchrotron and laser-based angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we investigated a stoichiometric transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD), 2M-WS2 with a superconducting transition temperature of 8.8 K (the highest among all TMDs in the natural form up to date) and observed distinctive topological surface states (TSSs). Furthermore, in the superconducting state, we found that the TSSs acquired a nodeless superconducting gap with similar magnitude as that of the bulk states. These discoveries not only evidence 2M-WS2 as an intrinsic TSC without the need of sensitive composition tuning or sophisticated heterostructures fabrication, but also provide an ideal platform for device applications thanks to its van der Waals layered structure.

Journal Keywords: Superconducting properties and materials; Topological insulators

Subject Areas: Materials, Physics


Instruments: I05-ARPES

Other Facilities: Spectromicroscopy at Elettra Synchrotron; BL5-2 at Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL)

Added On: 24/05/2021 14:55

Documents:
s41467-021-23076-1.pdf

Discipline Tags:

Superconductors Quantum Materials Hard condensed matter - electronic properties Physics Materials Science

Technical Tags:

Spectroscopy Angle Resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy (ARPES)