Search Menu
DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information
Search Scholarly Publications

Title: Superconductivity in the Surface State of Noble Metal Gold and its Fermi Level Tuning by EuS Dielectric

Abstract

The induced superconductivity (SC) in a robust and scalable quantum material with strong Rashba spin-orbit coupling is particularly attractive for generating topological superconductivity and Majorana bound states (MBS). Gold (111) thin film has been proposed as a promising candidate because of the large Rashba energy, the predicted topological nature, and the possibility for large-scale MBS device fabrications. We experimentally demonstrate two important steps towards achieving such a goal. We successfully show induced SC in the Shockley surface state (SS) of ultrathin Au(111) layers grown over epitaxial vanadium films, which is easily achievable on a wafer scale. The emergence of SC in the SS, which is physically separated from a bulk superconductor, is attained by indirect quasiparticle scattering processes instead of by conventional interfacial Andreev reflections. We further show the ability to tune the SS Fermi level (EF) by interfacing SS with a high-κ dielectric ferromagnetic insulator EuS. The shift of EF from ~550 to ~34 mV in superconducting SS is an important step towards realizing MBS in this robust system.

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [2];  [2]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States); Univ. of California, Riverside, CA (United States)
  2. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
  3. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States); ETH Zurich (Switzerland)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Science Foundation (NSF)
OSTI Identifier:
1609484
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1546410; OSTI ID: 1777857
Grant/Contract Number:  
FG02-03ER46076; DMR-1207469; DMR-1700137; N00014-13-1-0301; N00014-16-1-2657
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Physical Review Letters
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 122; Journal Issue: 24; Journal ID: ISSN 0031-9007
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY; physics; Majorana bound states; proximity effect; spin-orbit coupling; topological superconductors

Citation Formats

Wei, Peng, Manna, Sujit, Eich, Marius, Lee, Patrick, and Moodera, Jagadeesh. Superconductivity in the Surface State of Noble Metal Gold and its Fermi Level Tuning by EuS Dielectric. United States: N. p., 2019. Web. doi:10.1103/physrevlett.122.247002.
Copy to clipboard
Wei, Peng, Manna, Sujit, Eich, Marius, Lee, Patrick, & Moodera, Jagadeesh. Superconductivity in the Surface State of Noble Metal Gold and its Fermi Level Tuning by EuS Dielectric. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.122.247002
Copy to clipboard
Wei, Peng, Manna, Sujit, Eich, Marius, Lee, Patrick, and Moodera, Jagadeesh. Fri . "Superconductivity in the Surface State of Noble Metal Gold and its Fermi Level Tuning by EuS Dielectric". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.122.247002. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1609484.
Copy to clipboard
@article{osti_1609484,
title = {Superconductivity in the Surface State of Noble Metal Gold and its Fermi Level Tuning by EuS Dielectric},
author = {Wei, Peng and Manna, Sujit and Eich, Marius and Lee, Patrick and Moodera, Jagadeesh},
abstractNote = {The induced superconductivity (SC) in a robust and scalable quantum material with strong Rashba spin-orbit coupling is particularly attractive for generating topological superconductivity and Majorana bound states (MBS). Gold (111) thin film has been proposed as a promising candidate because of the large Rashba energy, the predicted topological nature, and the possibility for large-scale MBS device fabrications. We experimentally demonstrate two important steps towards achieving such a goal. We successfully show induced SC in the Shockley surface state (SS) of ultrathin Au(111) layers grown over epitaxial vanadium films, which is easily achievable on a wafer scale. The emergence of SC in the SS, which is physically separated from a bulk superconductor, is attained by indirect quasiparticle scattering processes instead of by conventional interfacial Andreev reflections. We further show the ability to tune the SS Fermi level (EF) by interfacing SS with a high-κ dielectric ferromagnetic insulator EuS. The shift of EF from ~550 to ~34 mV in superconducting SS is an important step towards realizing MBS in this robust system.},
doi = {10.1103/physrevlett.122.247002},
journal = {Physical Review Letters},
number = 24,
volume = 122,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Jun 21 00:00:00 EDT 2019},
month = {Fri Jun 21 00:00:00 EDT 2019}
}
Copy to clipboard
Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.122.247002
Copyright Statement
Other availability
Search WorldCat Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journal
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 12 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Figures / Tables:

Fig. 1 Fig. 1: (a) Large scale constant current STM topography image of 20nm thick V film grown on sapphire substrate. (Inset): schematic layout of the heterostructure. (b) High resolution STM image confirming V(110) surface. (c) The large scale atomic terraces of 4nm Au grown on V. (Inset): dI/dV tunneling spectrum showingmore » the edge of the surface energy band. (d) Atomic resolved STM image showing the hexagonal atomic lattice of Au(111).« less
All figures and tables (4 total)
Save / Share:
Export Metadata
Save to My Library
You must Sign In or Create an Account in order to save documents to your library.

Works referenced in this record:

Topological superconductivity and Majorana fermions in metallic surface states
journal, March 2012

Maki analysis of spin-polarized tunneling in an oxide ferromagnet
journal, July 2000

Theory of Superconductors Containing Magnetic Impurities
journal, July 1966

Chiral Majorana fermion modes in a quantum anomalous Hall insulator–superconductor structure
journal, July 2017

Exchange-Coupling-Induced Symmetry Breaking in Topological Insulators
journal, April 2013

Spin-polarized electron tunneling
journal, March 1994

Theory of Fermi-liquid effects in high-field tunneling
journal, May 1985

Majorana bound state in a coupled quantum-dot hybrid-nanowire system
journal, December 2016

Topological states on the gold surface
journal, December 2015

  • Yan, Binghai; Stadtmüller, Benjamin; Haag, Norman
  • Nature Communications, Vol. 6, Article No. 10167
  • DOI: 10.1038/ncomms10167

Majorana zero modes in superconductor–semiconductor heterostructures
journal, May 2018

  • Lutchyn, R. M.; Bakkers, E. P. A. M.; Kouwenhoven, L. P.
  • Nature Reviews Materials, Vol. 3, Issue 5
  • DOI: 10.1038/s41578-018-0003-1

Two-band superconductivity of bulk and surface states in Ag thin films on Nb
journal, December 2016

Tunneling Model of the Superconducting Proximity Effect
journal, November 1968

Theory of Superconductors Containing Magnetic Impurities
journal, January 1966

Anomalous Modulation of a Zero-Bias Peak in a Hybrid Nanowire-Superconductor Device
journal, March 2013

Dimensionality Effects in the Lifetime of Surface States
journal, May 2000

The phenomena of spin-filter tunnelling
journal, April 2007

  • Moodera, Jagadeesh S.; Santos, Tiffany S.; Nagahama, Taro
  • Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, Vol. 19, Issue 16
  • DOI: 10.1088/0953-8984/19/16/165202

Strong interfacial exchange field in the graphene/EuS heterostructure
journal, March 2016

  • Wei, Peng; Lee, Sunwoo; Lemaitre, Florian
  • Nature Materials, Vol. 15, Issue 7
  • DOI: 10.1038/nmat4603

Direct Measurement of Quasiparticle-Lifetime Broadening in a Strong-Coupled Superconductor
journal, November 1978

Quantized Majorana conductance
journal, March 2018

  • Zhang, Hao; Liu, Chun-Xiao; Gazibegovic, Sasa
  • Nature, Vol. 556, Issue 7699
  • DOI: 10.1038/nature26142

Pauli Paramagnetism and Superconducting State. II
journal, July 1964

Magnetic Field Splitting of the Quasiparticle States in Superconducting Aluminum Films
journal, November 1970

Experimental Test of the Theory of High-Field Superconductivity
journal, July 1979

Superconducting Spin Switch with Infinite Magnetoresistance Induced by an Internal Exchange Field
journal, February 2013

Anomalous Zero-Bias Conductance Peak in a Nb–InSb Nanowire–Nb Hybrid Device
journal, February 2012

  • Deng, M. T.; Yu, C. L.; Huang, G. Y.
  • Nano Letters, Vol. 12, Issue 12
  • DOI: 10.1021/nl303758w

High field superconductivity in thin films
journal, November 1973

Ising pairing in superconducting NbSe2 atomic layers
journal, November 2015

  • Xi, Xiaoxiang; Wang, Zefang; Zhao, Weiwei
  • Nature Physics, Vol. 12, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1038/nphys3538

Critical magnetic field of very thin superconducting aluminum films
journal, January 1982

Majorana Zero Mode Detected with Spin Selective Andreev Reflection in the Vortex of a Topological Superconductor
journal, June 2016

Signatures of Majorana Fermions in Hybrid Superconductor-Semiconductor Nanowire Devices
journal, April 2012

Change of the surface electronic structure of Au(111) by a monolayer MgO(001) film
journal, August 2011

Milestones Toward Majorana-Based Quantum Computing
journal, August 2016

Tunneling measurements on spin-paired superconductors with spin-orbit scattering
journal, June 1975

Thin-film superconductor in an exchange field
journal, September 1991

Magnetic Field Splitting of the Density of States of Thin Superconductors
journal, October 1973

Anomalous density of states in a metallic film in proximity with a superconductor
journal, March 2004

Exponential protection of zero modes in Majorana islands
journal, March 2016

  • Albrecht, S. M.; Higginbotham, A. P.; Madsen, M.
  • Nature, Vol. 531, Issue 7593
  • DOI: 10.1038/nature17162

Elementary excitations in the vicinity of a normal metal-superconducting metal contact
journal, March 1963

Phase analysis of image states and surface states associated with nearly-free-electron band gaps
journal, September 1985

Spin Splitting of an Au(111) Surface State Band Observed with Angle Resolved Photoelectron Spectroscopy
journal, October 1996

The fractional a.c. Josephson effect in a semiconductor–superconductor nanowire as a signature of Majorana particles
journal, September 2012

  • Rokhinson, Leonid P.; Liu, Xinyu; Furdyna, Jacek K.
  • Nature Physics, Vol. 8, Issue 11
  • DOI: 10.1038/nphys2429

Observation of Majorana fermions in ferromagnetic atomic chains on a superconductor
journal, October 2014

A high-temperature ferromagnetic topological insulating phase by proximity coupling
journal, May 2016

  • Katmis, Ferhat; Lauter, Valeria; Nogueira, Flavio S.
  • Nature, Vol. 533, Issue 7604
  • DOI: 10.1038/nature17635

Zero-bias peaks and splitting in an Al–InAs nanowire topological superconductor as a signature of Majorana fermions
journal, November 2012

  • Das, Anindya; Ronen, Yuval; Most, Yonatan
  • Nature Physics, Vol. 8, Issue 12
  • DOI: 10.1038/nphys2479

Spin-orbit splitting of the L -gap surface state on Au(111) and Ag(111)
journal, December 2001

Flux-controlled quantum computation with Majorana fermions
journal, July 2013

Low-Temperature Thermodynamic Properties of Vanadium. II. Mixed State
journal, September 1966

Spatial dependence and binding energy shift of surface states for epitaxial overlayers of Au on Ag(111) and Ag on Au(111)
journal, February 1986

Topological Superconductivity and Majorana Fermions in Metallic Surface-States
text, January 2012

Anomalous modulation of a zero bias peak in a hybrid nanowire-superconductor device
text, January 2012

Topological States on the Gold Surface
text, January 2015

Two-band superconductivity of bulk and surface states in Ag thin films on Nb
text, January 2015

Strong interfacial exchange field in the graphene/EuS heterostructure
text, January 2015

Milestones toward Majorana-based quantum computing
text, January 2015

Majorana bound states in a coupled quantum-dot hybrid-nanowire system
text, January 2016

Quantized Majorana conductance
text, January 2017

    Sort by:
    [ × clear filter / sort ]

    Works referencing / citing this record:

    Pair suppression caused by mosaic-twist defects in superconducting Sr2RuO4 thin-films prepared using pulsed laser deposition
    journal, May 2020

    • Garcia, Carla Maria Palomares; Di Bernardo, Angelo; Kimbell, Graham
    • Communications Materials, Vol. 1, Issue 1
    • DOI: 10.1038/s43246-020-0026-1
      Sort by:
      [ × clear filter / sort ]

      Figures / Tables found in this record:

      Fig. 1 (p. 12)figure
      Fig. 2 (p. 13)figure
      Fig. 3 (p. 14)figure
      Fig. 4 (p. 15)figure
        [ × clear filter / sort ]
        Figures/Tables have been extracted from DOE-funded journal article accepted manuscripts.

        Similar Records in DOE PAGES and OSTI.GOV collections: