Novel self-epitaxy for inducing superconductivity in the topological insulator (Bi1−xSbx)2Te3

Mengmeng Bai; Fan Yang; Martina Luysberg; Junya Feng; Andrea Bliesener; Gertjan Lippertz; A. A. Taskin; Joachim Mayer; Yoichi Ando

doi:10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.4.094801

Novel self-epitaxy for inducing superconductivity in the topological insulator (Bi1−xSbx)2Te3

Mengmeng Bai, Fan Yang, Martina Luysberg, Junya Feng, Andrea Bliesener, Gertjan Lippertz, A. A. Taskin, Joachim Mayer, Yoichi Ando

DOI 10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.4.094801 · Physical Review Materials

T1

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Abstract

Using the superconducting proximity effect for engineering a topological superconducting state in a topological insulator (TI) is a promising route to realize Majorana fermions. However, epitaxial growth of a superconductor on the TI surface to achieve a good proximity effect has been a challenge. We discovered that simply depositing Pd on thin films of the TI material (Bi1−xSbx)2Te3 leads to an epitaxial self-formation of PdTe2 superconductor having the superconducting transition temperature of ∼1 K. This self-formed superconductor proximitizes the TI, which is confirmed by the appearance of a supercurrent in Josephson-junction devices made on (Bi1−xSbx)2Te3. This self-epitaxy phenomenon can be conveniently used for fabricating TI-based superconducting nanodevices to address the superconducting proximity effect in TIs.

Source-reported materials — not catalogue approval

Formula	Reported Tc (K)	Pressure (GPa)	Type
PdTe2 Archive — visibility unverified Source-occurrence policy only; no material identity or catalogue acceptance is inferred from the formula.	0.67	Pressure not reported	midpoint
PdTe2 Archive — visibility unverified Source-occurrence policy only; no material identity or catalogue acceptance is inferred from the formula.	1	Pressure not reported	midpoint
PdTe2 Archive — visibility unverified Source-occurrence policy only; no material identity or catalogue acceptance is inferred from the formula.	1.22	Pressure not reported	midpoint
PdTe2 Archive — visibility unverified Source-occurrence policy only; no material identity or catalogue acceptance is inferred from the formula.	0.81	Pressure not reported	midpoint
PdTe2 Archive — visibility unverified Source-occurrence policy only; no material identity or catalogue acceptance is inferred from the formula.	2	Pressure not reported	unknown