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Probing Proximity Effect in Topological Insulator/Superconductor Heterostructures

ORAL

Abstract

Topological insulator (TI)/superconductor heterostructures are predicted to host Majorana zero modes, which are building blocks of topological qubit. In this work, we synthesize high-quality large-area TI/graphene (Gr)/gallium heterostructures combining confinement epitaxy and molecular beam epitaxy. Atomically thin Ga film superconducts at T_{c}~4K [B. Bersh, et. al, arXiv:1905.09938], and the growth of TI preserves its superconductivity. We probe the proximity effect in the TI film using four-terminal transport and tunneling spectroscopy. Hints of a proximity induced gap in the TI film are observed in transport measurements. We demonstrate the efficacy of a clean van der Waals tunnel junction in probing the superconducting gap of thin film NbSe_{2} and present tunneling spectroscopy measurements on TI/Gr/Ga heterostructures.

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Presenters

  • Cequn Li

    Pennsylvania State University

Authors

  • Cequn Li

    Pennsylvania State University

  • Brian Bersch

    Pennsylvania State University

  • Natalie Briggs

    Pennsylvania State University

  • Yifan Zhao

    Pennsylvania State University, Department of Physics, The Pennsylvania State University, Department of Physics, Pennsylvania State University

  • Chengye Dong

    Pennsylvania State University, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University

  • Timothy Bowen

    Pennsylvania State University

  • Hemian Yi

    Pennsylvania State University, Department of Physics, The Pennsylvania State University, Department of Physics, Pennsylvania State University

  • Joshua Robinson

    Pennsylvania State University, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Pennsylvania State University

  • Cui-Zu Chang

    Pennsylvania State University, Department of Physics, The Pennsylvania State University, Department of Physics, Pennsylvania State University

  • Jun Zhu

    Pennsylvania State University, Physics, The Pennsylvania State University