Abstract
Topological superconductors (TSCs) are unconventional superconductors with bulk superconducting gap and in-gap Majorana states on the boundary that may be used as topological qubits for quantum computation. Despite their importance in both fundamental research and applications, natural TSCs are very rare. Here, combining state of the art synchrotron and laser-based angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we investigated a stoichiometric transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD), 2M-WS2 with a superconducting transition temperature of 8.8 K (the highest among all TMDs in the natural form up to date) and observed distinctive topological surface states (TSSs). Furthermore, in the superconducting state, we found that the TSSs acquired a nodeless superconducting gap with similar magnitude as that of the bulk states. These discoveries not only evidence 2M-WS2 as an intrinsic TSC without the need of sensitive composition tuning or sophisticated heterostructures fabrication, but also provide an ideal platform for device applications thanks to its van der Waals layered structure.
Highlights
Topological superconductors (TSCs) are unconventional superconductors with bulk superconducting gap and in-gap Majorana states on the boundary that may be used as topological qubits for quantum computation
A stoichiometric transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD), 2M-WS2 was proposed as an intrinsic TSC with the highest intrinsic superconducting transition temperature
The nontrivial topological electronic structure of 2M-WS2 was theoretically proposed in a recent work[26,29] and is confirmed by our ab initio calculations: 2M-WS2 is a TSM in its normal state with the topological surface states (TSSs) located at the center of the surface Brillouin zone (BZ); in the superconducting state, both the BSs and TSSs are expected to be gapped
Summary
Topological superconductors (TSCs) are unconventional superconductors with bulk superconducting gap and in-gap Majorana states on the boundary that may be used as topological qubits for quantum computation. Despite their importance in both fundamental research and applications, natural TSCs are very rare. In the superconducting state, we found that the TSSs acquired a nodeless superconducting gap with similar magnitude as that of the bulk states These discoveries evidence 2M-WS2 as an intrinsic TSC without the need of sensitive composition tuning or sophisticated heterostructures fabrication, and provide an ideal platform for device applications thanks to its van der Waals layered structure.
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