How an interfacial superconductivity
emerges during the nucleation
and epitaxy is of great importance not only for unveiling the physical
insights but also for finding a feasible way to tune the superconductivity
via interfacial engineering. In this work, we report the nanoscale
creation of a robust and relatively homogeneous interfacial superconductivity
(T
C ≈ 13 K) on the epitaxial FeTe
surface, by van der Waals epitaxy of single-quintuple-layer topological
insulator Bi2Te3. Our study suggests that the
superconductivity in the Bi2Te3/FeTe heterostructure
is generated at the interface and that the superconductivity at the
interface does not enhance or weaken with the increase of the Bi2Te3 thickness beyond 1 quintuple layer (QL). The
observation of the topological surface states crossing Fermi energy
in the Bi2Te3/FeTe heterostructure with the
average Bi2Te3 thickness of about 20 QL provides
further evidence that this heterostructure may potentially host Majorana
zero modes.
Materials with strong magnetoresistive responses are the backbone of spintronic technology, magnetic sensors, and hard drives. Among them, manganese oxides with a mixed valence and a cubic perovskite structure stand out due to their colossal magnetoresistance (CMR). A double exchange interaction underlies the CMR in manganates, whereby charge transport is enhanced when the spins on neighboring Mn3+ and Mn4+ ions are parallel. Prior efforts to find different materials or mechanisms for CMR resulted in a much smaller effect. Here an enormous CMR at low temperatures in EuCd2P2 without manganese, oxygen, mixed valence, or cubic perovskite structure is shown. EuCd2P2 has a layered trigonal lattice and exhibits antiferromagnetic ordering at 11 K. The magnitude of CMR (104%) in as‐grown crystals of EuCd2P2 rivals the magnitude in optimized thin films of manganates. The magnetization, transport, and synchrotron X‐ray data suggest that strong magnetic fluctuations are responsible for this phenomenon. The realization of CMR at low temperatures without heterovalency leads to a new regime for materials and technologies related to antiferromagnetic spintronics.
In this work, we demonstrate that the nonsuperconducting single-layer FeTe can become superconducting when its structure is properly tuned by epitaxially growing it on Bi 2 Te 3 thin films. The properties of the single-layer FeTe deviate strongly from its bulk counterpart, as evidenced by the emergence of a large superconductivity gap (3.3 meV) and an apparent 8 × 2 superlattice (SL). Our first-principles calculations indicate that the 8 × 2 SL and the emergence of the novel superconducting phase are essentially the result of the structural change in FeTe due to the presence of the underlying Bi 2 Te 3 layer. The structural change in FeTe likely suppresses the antiferromagnetic order in the FeTe and leads to superconductivity. Our work clearly demonstrates that moireṕ attern engineering in a heterostructure is a reachable dimension for investigating novel materials and material properties.
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