Abstract
We studied magnetized topological insulator/superconductor junctions with the expectation of unconventional superconductive states holding Majorana fermions induced by superconductive proximity effects on the surface states of magnetized topological insulators (TIs), attached by conventional superconductors. We introduced Fe-doped BiSbTe2Se as an ideal magnetic TI and used the developed junction fabrication process to access the proximity-induced surface superconducting states. The bulk single crystals of the Fe-doped TI showed excellent bulk-insulating properties and ferromagnetism simultaneously at a low temperature. Meanwhile, the fabricated junctions also showed an insulating behavior above 100 K, as well as metallic conduction at a low temperature, which reflects bulk carrier freezing. In addition, we observed a proximity-induced gap structure in the conductance spectra. These results indicate that the junctions using the established materials and process are preferable to observe unconventional superconducting states which are induced via the surface channels of the magnetized TI. We believe that the developed process can be applied for the fabrication of complicated junctions and suites for braiding operations.
Highlights
Unconventional superconductive states hosting non-Abelian anyons [1,2,3], including Majorana fermions [4] on their surface Andreev bound states [5,6,7], are indispensable constituents for future fault-tolerant quantum computing [8,9]
Signatures of Majorana fermions have been observed in Rashba nanowires [12,13,14] and two-dimensional (2D) topological insulator (TI)-based junctions [15,16]
The 3D TI-based junctions potentially induce further unconventional superconductivity states, which provide another possible way to access Majorana fermions; the proximity-induced superconductive states depend on the strength and direction of the applied magnetic fields and moments [20,21,22,23]
Summary
Unconventional superconductive states hosting non-Abelian anyons [1,2,3], including Majorana fermions [4] on their surface Andreev bound states [5,6,7], are indispensable constituents for future fault-tolerant quantum computing [8,9]. In three-dimensional (3D) TI-based junctions, the origins of zero-bias conduction peaks are still controversial due to the existing bulk carriers [17], such signals are considered to represent the p-wave superconductivity states [18,19].
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