Absence of a Proximity Effect in a Topological Insulator on a Cuprate Superconductor: Bi2Se3/Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8

Abstract

Proximity-induced superconductivity in a 3D topological insulator represents a new avenue for observing zero-energy Majorana fermions inside vortex cores. Relatively small gaps and low transition temperatures of conventional s-wave superconductors put the hard constraints on these experiments. Significantly larger gaps and higher transition temperatures in cuprate superconductors might be an attractive alternative to considerably relax these constraints, but it is not clear whether the proximity effect would be effective in heterostructures involving cuprates and topological insulators. Here, we present angle-resolved photoemission studies of thin Bi2Se3 films grown in-situ on optimally doped Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 substrates that show the absence of proximity-induced gaps on the surfaces of Bi2Se3 films as thin as a 1.5 quintuple layer. These results suggest that the superconducting proximity effect between a cuprate superconductor and a topological insulator is strongly suppressed, likely due to a very short coherence length along the c-axis, incompatible crystal and pairing symmetries at the interface, small size of the topological surface state Fermi surface and adverse effects of a strong spin-orbit coupling in the topological material.

arXiv commentWork presented at the March Meeting of American Physical Society in Denver on March 3, 2014

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• Momentum space imaging of Cooper pairing in a half-Dirac-gas topological superconductor (a helical 2D topological superconductor)
• Detection of second-order topological superconductors by Josephson junctions
• High-temperature superconductivity from fine-tuning of Fermi-surface singularities in iron oxypnictides
• Superconducting proximity effect in a topological insulator using Fe(Te,Se)
• On the interplay of paramagnetism and topology in the Fe-based High Tc Superconductors
• The origin of bias independent conductance plateaus and zero bias conductance peaks in Bi2Se3/NbSe2 hybrid structures
• Quantum size effects, multiple Dirac cones and edge states in ultrathin Bi(110) films
• Observation of the anisotropic Dirac cone in the band dispersion of 112-structured iron-based superconductor Ca0.9La0.1FeAs2
• Transition from three- to two-dimensional Ising superconductivity in few-layer NbSe2 by proximity effect from van der Waals heterostacking
• Superconducting proximity effect in topological metals
• Twofold symmetry of proximity-induced superconductivity in Bi${}_2$Te${}_3$/Bi${}_2$Sr${}_2$CaCu${}_2$O${}_{8+\delta }$ heterostructures revealed by scanning tunneling microscopy
• Massive suppression of proximity pairing in topological (Bi${}_{1-x}$Sb${}_x{)}_2$Te${}_3$ films on niobium
• Superconducting proximity effect in $d$-wave cuprate/ graphene heterostructures
• Controversy over large proximity induced s wave like pairing from a d wave superconductor
• Competing energy scales in topological superconducting heterostructures
• Coulomb Blockade Effects in a Topological Insulator Grown on a High-Tc Cuprate Superconductor
• Effect of impurities on the Josephson current through helical metals: Exploiting a neutrino paradigm
• Resilient Growth of Highly Crystalline Topological Insulator-Superconductor Heterostructure Enabled by Ex-situ Nitride Film
• Origin of Suppression of Proximity Induced Superconductivity in Bi/Bi${}_2$Sr${}_2$CaCu${}_2$O${}_{8+\delta }$ Heterostructure
• Modeling Tunneling for the Unconventional Superconducting Proximity Effect
• Proximity effect in a heterostructure of a high $T_c$ superconductor with a topological insulator from Dynamical mean field theory
• Detecting competing orders through the edge states in the heterostructures with high-Tc superconductors
• Andreev Reflection without Fermi surface alignment in High T${}_c$-Topological heterostructures
• Proximity effect and inverse proximity effect in a topological-insulator/iron-based-superconductor heterostructure
• Possible Topological Superconductivity in a Topological Crystalline Insulator (Pb${}_{1-x}$Sn${}_x$)${}_{1-y}$In${}_y$Te
• Shallow core levels, or how to determine the doping and $T_c$ of Bi${}_2$Sr${}_2$CaCu${}_2$O${}_{8+\delta }$ and Bi${}_2$Sr${}_2$CuO${}_{6+\delta }$ without cooling