Exploring Topological Superconductivity in Topological Materials

Abstract

The exploration of topological superconductivity and Majorana zero modes has become a rapidly developing field. Many types of proposals to realize topological superconductors have been presented, and significant advances have been recently made. In this review, a survey is conducted on the experimental progress in possible topological superconductors and induced superconductivity in topological insulators or semimetals as well as artificial structures. The approaches to inducing superconductivity in topological materials mainly include high pressure application, the hard-tip point contact method, chemical doping or intercalation, the use of artificial topological superconductors, and electric field gating. The evidence supporting topological superconductivity and signatures of Majorana zero modes are also discussed and summarized.

Strong Electron–Phonon Coupling in 3D WN and Coexistence of Intrinsic Superconductivity and Topological Nodal Line in Its 2D Limit

“…The predicted T c in TaN here is up to 26.98 K. These results undoubtedly confirm that charge doping play a vital role in inducing superconductivity in WC and TaN, which explain the close relationship between T c and carrier density found in experiments. [16,18] As one of the most important quantities in TSC, [33] the superconducting gap is obtained by solving the fully anisotropic Migdal-Eliashberg equations self-consistently using electronphonon coupling using Wannier functions (EPW) code. [34,35] The perfect fitting of Wannier interpolated bands with density-functional theory (DFT) bands guarantees the reliability of our EPW calculations (Figure S4, Supporting Information).…”

Search for non-Abelian Majorana braiding statistics in superconductors

“…We see a parallel with our review of the search for the observation of Majoranas [25], which we wrote in 2011 -one year before the first experiment appeared [26]. There now exist many updates on the observational state of affairs, to which we refer for background [10,[27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34]. In what follows we focus on the "how-to" of the braiding operation, expecting physical implementations to follow in the near future.…”

Type-I superconductivity in single-crystal Pb2Pd

“…In recent years, the discovery and study of exotic phases of matter such as Weyl and Dirac semimetal [1], topological insulators [2] and, topological superconductors [3] continues to interest both theorists and experimentalists. Among these phases, topological superconductivity (TSC) is one of the most studied phenomena and has become a rapidly developing field in which significant advances have been recently made [3].…”