Two-dimensional superconductivity at the interface of a Bi2Te3/FeTe heterostructure

Abstract

Superconductivity at the interface of a heterostructure confined to nanometer-sized scale offers unique opportunities to study the exotic physics of two-dimensional superconductivity. The realization of superconductivity at the interface between a topological insulator and an iron-chalcogenide compound is highly attractive for exploring several recent theoretical predictions involving these two new classes of materials. Here, we report transport measurements on a Bi2Te3/FeTe heterostructure fabricated via van der Waals epitaxy, which demonstrate superconductivity at the interface induced by the Bi2Te3 epilayer with thickness even down to one quintuple layer. The two-dimensional nature of the observed superconductivity with the highest transition temperature around 12 K was verified by the existence of a Berezinsky-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition and the diverging ratio of in-plane to out-plane upper critical field on approaching the superconducting transition temperature. With the combination of interface superconductivity and Dirac surface states of Bi2Te3, the heterostructure studied in this work provides a novel platform for realizing Majorana fermions.

24 pages, 5 figures and supplementary information

References in corpus (10)

• Van der Waals heterostructures
• Non-Abelian Anyons and Topological Quantum Computation
• Superconducting proximity effect and Majorana fermions at the surface of a topological insulator
• Incommensurate magnetic order in the alpha-Fe(Te,Se) superconductor systems
• High-temperature interface superconductivity between metallic and insulating cuprates
• First-order magnetic and structural phase transitions in Fe${}_{1+y}$Se${}_x$Te${}_{1-x}$
• Impurity effect on weak anti-localization in the topological insulator Bi2Te3
• Interface induced high temperature superconductivity in single unit-cell FeSe films on SrTiO3(110)
• FeTe as a candidate material for new iron-based superconductor
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Cited by in corpus (56)

• Highly crystalline 2D superconductors
• Evidence for interfacial superconductivity in a bi-collinear antiferromagnetically ordered FeTe monolayer on a topological insulator
• Chiral Topological Superconductors Enhanced by Long-Range Interactions
• Interface-Induced Superconductivity in Magnetic Topological Insulator-Iron Chalcogenide Heterostructures
• Observation of Interface Superconductivity in a SnSe2-Epitaxial Graphene van der Waals Heterostructure
• Pseudodoping of Metallic Two-Dimensional Materials by The Supporting Substrates
• Universal dynamical scaling of long-range topological superconductors
• Studies on the origin of the interfacial superconductivity of Sb2Te3/Fe1+yTe heterostructures
• Two-dimensional Superconductivity from Dimerization of Atomically Ordered AuTe2Se4/3 Cubes
• Fabrication of high-temperature quasi-two-dimensional superconductors at the interface of a ferroelectric Ba${}_{0.8}$Sr${}_{0.2}$TiO${}_3$ film and an insulating parent compound of La${}_2$CuO${}_4$
• Substrate mediated nitridation of niobium into superconducting Nb2N thin films for phase slip study
• Hybrid symmetry epitaxy of superconducting Fe(Te,Se) film on a topological insulator
• Nearly isotropic superconductivity in layered Weyl semimetal WTe${}_2$ at 98.5 kbar
• Electronic structure of Bi2Te3/FeTe heterostructure: implications for unconventional superconductivity
• Monolayer superconductivity and tunable topological electronic structure at the Fe(Te,Se)/Bi2Te3 interface
• Enhanced Conductivity Along Lateral Homojunction Interfaces of Atomically Thin Semiconductors
• Angular dependence of the upper critical field in the high-pressure $1T^{\prime }$ phase of MoTe${}_2$
• Dirac-Fermion-Assisted Interfacial Superconductivity in Epitaxial Topological Insulator/Iron Chalcogenide Heterostructures
• Competing superconducting phases in interacting two-dimensional electron gas with strong Rashba spin-orbit coupling
• Synthesis, phase stability, structural and physical properties of 11-type iron chalcogenides
• Robust two-dimensional superconductivity and vortex system in Bi2Te3/FeTe heterostructures
• Step-edge assisted large scale FeSe monolayer growth on epitaxial Bi2Se3 thin films
• Molecular beam epitaxy of superconducting FeSe${}_x$Te${}_{1-x}$ thin films interfaced with magnetic topological insulators
• Superconducting four-fold Fe(Te,Se) film on six-fold magnetic MnTe via hybrid symmetry epitaxy
• Electronic Structure of Fe${}_{1.08}$Te bulk crystals and epitaxial FeTe thin films on Bi${}_2$Te${}_3$
• Universal Superconductivity in FeTe and All-Iron-Based Ferromagnetic Superconductor Heterostructures
• Proximity effect in a superconductor-topological insulator heterostructure based on first principles
• Interfacially enhanced superconductivity in Fe(Te,Se)/Bi4Te3 heterostructures
• Enhanced spin ordering temperature in ultrathin FeTe films grown on a topological insulator
• Practical new platform for interaction-enabled topological phases
• Tailoring Kinetics on a Topological Insulator Surface by Defect-Induced Strain: Pb Mobility on Bi2Te3
• Stoichiometric FeTe is a Superconductor
• Evaluating Superconductors through Current Induced Depairing
• High quality Fe1+yTe synthesized by chemical vapor deposition with conspicuous vortex flow
• Vortex bound states of charge and magnetic fluctuations-induced topological superconductors in heterostructures
• Engineering topological superconductors using surface atomic-layer/molecule hybrid materials
• Mystery of superconductivity in FeTe films and the role of neighboring layers
• Proximity effect and inverse proximity effect in a topological-insulator/iron-based-superconductor heterostructure
• Phonon Spectra in the Parent Superconducting Iron-tuned Telluride Fe${}_{1+x}$Te from Inelastic Neutron Scattering and Ab Initio Calculations
• Band twisting and resilience to disorder in long-range topological superconductors
• Interface-Enhanced Superconductivity in Ultrathin TiN Proximitized by Topological Insulators
• Ubiquity of rotational symmetry breaking in superconducting films, from Fe(Te,Se)/Bi${}_2$Te${}_3$ to Nb, and the effect of measurement geometry
• A scenario for the critical fluctuations near the transition of few-bilayer films of high-temperature cuprate superconductors
• Meissner Effect and Nonreciprocal Charge Transport in Non-Topological 1T-CrTe2/FeTe Heterostructures
• Interfacial superconductivity in the type-III heterostructure SnSe${}_2$/PtTe${}_2$
• Moire Engineering of Cooper-Pair Density Modulation States
• Unconventional interfacial superconductivity in epitaxial Bi/Ni heterostructures
• Superconductivity in Nanosystems: A Fruitful Path to New Phenomenology in Quantum Materials
• Observation of the crossover from quantum fluxoid to half-quantum fluxoid in a chiral superconducting device
• Proximity-Induced Superconductivity in a Topological Crystalline Insulator
• Vacancy Order and Physical Properties of a Ternary Compound Fe0.68Pd0.80Te with an α-Fe1+xTe-Type Structure
• Interfacial superconductivity induced by single-quintuple-layer Bi${}_2$Te${}_3$ on top of FeTe forming van-der-Waals heterostructure
• Reversible tuning of magnetic order and intrinsic superconductivity in strained FeTe films via stoichiometry control
• Large gap, a pseudogap and proximity effect in the Bi2Te3/Fe1+yTe interfacial superconductor
• The possible coexistence of superconductivity and topological electronic states in 1T-RhSeTe
• Disorder-induced time effect in the antiferromagnetic domain state of Fe1+yTe