Half-integer level shift of vortex bound states in an iron-based superconductor

Kong, Lingyuan; Zhu, Shiyu; Papaj, Michal; Chen, Hui; Cao, Lu; Isobe, Hiroki; Xing, Yuqing; Liu, Wenyao; Wang, Dongfei; Fan, Peng; Sun, Yujie; Du, Shixuan; Schneeloch, John; Zhong, Ruidan; Gu, Genda; Fu, Liang; Gao, Hong-Jun; Ding, Hong

doi:10.1038/s41567-019-0630-5

Title: Half-integer level shift of vortex bound states in an iron-based superconductor

Journal Article · Mon Jul 15 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · Nature Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-019-0630-5· OSTI ID:1543405

Kong, Lingyuan ^[1]; Zhu, Shiyu ^[1]; Papaj, Michal ^[2]; Chen, Hui ^[1]; Cao, Lu ^[1]; Isobe, Hiroki ^[2]; Xing, Yuqing ^[1]; Liu, Wenyao ^[1]; Wang, Dongfei ^[1]; Fan, Peng ^[1]; Sun, Yujie ^[3]; Du, Shixuan ^[4]; Schneeloch, John ^[5]; Zhong, Ruidan ^[5];

^[5]; Fu, Liang ^[2]; Gao, Hong-Jun ^[4]; Ding, Hong ^[3]

Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China)
Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China); Univ. of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing (China); Songshan Lake Materials Lab., Guangdong (China)
Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China); Univ. of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing (China)
Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)

Vortices in topological superconductors host Majorana zero modes (MZMs), which are proposed to be building blocks of fault-tolerant topological quantum computers. Recently, a new single-material platform for realizing MZM has been discovered in iron-based superconductors, without involving hybrid semiconductor-superconductor structures. Here we report on a detailed scanning tunneling spectroscopy study of a FeTe_0.55Se_0.45 single crystal, revealing two distinct classes of vortices present in this system which differ by a half-integer level shift in the energy spectra of the vortex bound states. This level shift is directly tied with the presence or absence of zero-bias peak and also alters the ratios of higher energy levels from integer to half-odd-integer. Our model calculations fully reproduce the spectra of these two types of vortex bound states, suggesting the presence of topological and conventional superconducting regions that coexist within the same crystal. Our findings provide strong evidence for the topological nature of superconductivity in FeTe_0.55Se_0.45 and establish it as an excellent platform for further studies on MZMs.

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Research Organization:: Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0012704

OSTI ID:: 1543405

Report Number(s):: BNL-211873-2019-JAAM

Journal Information:: Nature Physics, Vol. 15; ISSN 1745-2473

Publisher:: Nature Publishing Group (NPG)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 99 works

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