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  • Interfacial Superconductivi...
    Zhu, Wenliang; Hou, Xingyuan; Li, Jing; Huang, Yifei; Zhang, Shuai; He, Junbao; Chen, Dong; Wang, Yiyan; Dong, Qingxin; Zhang, Mengdi; Yang, Huaixin; Ren, Zhian; Hu, Jiangping; Shan, Lei; Chen, Genfu

    Advanced materials (Weinheim), 04/2020, Letnik: 32, Številka: 16
    Journal Article

    Interfaces between materials with different electronic ground states have become powerful platforms for creating and controlling novel quantum states of matter, in which inversion symmetry breaking and other effects at the interface may introduce additional electronic states. Among the emergent phenomena, superconductivity is of particular interest. Here, by depositing metal films on a newly identified topological semimetal tungsten carbide (WC) single crystal, interfacial superconductivity is obtained, evidenced from soft point‐contact spectroscopy. This very robust phenomenon is demonstrated for a wide range of metal/WC interfaces, involving both nonmagnetic and ferromagnetic films, and the superconducting transition temperatures are surprisingly insensitive to the magnetism of thin films. This method offers an opportunity to explore the long‐sought topological superconductivity and has potential applications in topological‐state‐based spin devices. Interfacial superconductivity is realized in topological semimetal tungsten carbide (WC)/normal‐metal heterostructures. The induced superconductivity is found to be insensitive to the magnetism, which is very different from the case of conventional superconductors, most probably indicating an unconventional nature of the pairing mechanism. The results provide a new direction for exploring topological superconductivity and designing novel topological quantum devices.