13/07/2023
Great success of Prof. Neupert’s group! 🎉🎉🎉
Martina O. Soldini et al. published their paper titled “Two dimensional topological crystalline superconductors can be built atom by atom” in Nature Physics !
Researchers in the Neupert group at the University of Zurich and in the Sessi group at the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics in Halle, Germany, have predicted and experimentally realised two-dimensional superconducting “Shiba lattices” which show signatures of crystalline topology. These lattices consist of Yu-Shiba-Rusinov states, motivating the name “Shiba lattices”, which arise when magnetic adatoms are placed on the surface of a conventional superconductor. By assembling lattices of magnetic adatoms one-by-one, by means of scanning tunnelling microscopy techniques, the experimentalists have built different two dimensional structures, distinguished by the type of lattice in the bulk and termination geometry. Scanning tunnelling microscopy also allows to probe these structures with single-atom precision. The experimental measurements and theoretical predictions indicate that two of the structures host Majorana edge bands and higher order corner Majorana modes, respectively, which are protected by the crystalline symmetries of the sample and termination geometry.
This work shows that Shiba lattices are promising a platform to design topological phases in two-dimensional superconductors.
