Electrically tunable low-density superconductivity in a monolayer topological insulator

Abstract

Superconductors with a topologically nontrivial band structure have been predicted to exhibit exotic properties. However, such materials are few and far between. Now, two groups show that the monolayer of the material tungsten ditelluride (WTe 2 )—already known to be a two-dimensional topological insulator—can also go superconducting. Fatemi et al. and Sajadi et al. varied the carrier density in the monolayer by applying a gate voltage and observed a transition from a topological to a superconducting phase. The findings may lead to the fabrication of devices in which local gating enables topological and superconducting phases to exist in the same material.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Nov 23, 2018
Source ID
10.1126/science.aar4642

Entities

People

  • Cao Yuan
  • Kenji Watanabe
  • Landry Bretheau
  • Pablo Jarillo-Herrero
  • Quinn D. Gibson
  • Robert Cava
  • Sanfeng Wu
  • Takashi Taniguchi
  • Valla Fatemi

Organizations

  • Air Force Office of Scientific Research
  • Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • National Institute for Materials Science
  • National Science Foundation
  • Princeton University
  • United States Department of Energy
  • University of Liverpool
  • École polytechnique

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Quantum spin resonance or Electron Paramagnetic Resonance spectroscopy.
  • Superconducting Magnet Technology
  • Thin Film Deposition Science.

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics
  • Microelectronics - Graphene