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Massive Suppression of Proximity Pairing in Topological (Bi1−xSbx)2Te3 Films on Niobium

Joseph A. Hlevyack1,2,‡, Sahand Najafzadeh3,‡, Meng-Kai Lin1,2, Takahiro Hashimoto3, Tsubaki Nagashima3, Akihiro Tsuzuki3, Akiko Fukushima3, Cédric Bareille3, Yang Bai1,2 et al.

Peng Chen1,2,4,5, Ro-Ya Liu1,2,6, Yao Li1,2, David Flötotto7, José Avila8, James N. Eckstein1,2, Shik Shin9, Kozo Okazaki3,*, and T.-C. Chiang1,2,†

  • 1Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA
  • 2Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA
  • 3Institute for Solid State Physics, The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8581, Japan
  • 4Shanghai Center for Complex Physics, School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
  • 5Key Laboratory of Artificial Structures and Quantum Control (Ministry of Education), Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
  • 6Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
  • 7Center for Soft Nanoscience, University of Münster, 48149 Münster, Germany
  • 8Synchrotron SOLEIL and Université Paris-Saclay, L’Orme des Merisiers, BP48, 91190 Saint-Aubin, France
  • 9Office of University Professor, The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8581, Japan

  • *Corresponding author. okazaki@issp.u-tokyo.ac.jp
  • †Corresponding author. tcchiang@illinois.edu
  • ‡These authors contributed equally to this work.

Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 236402 – Published 12 June, 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.236402

Abstract

Interfacing bulk conducting topological Bi2Se3 films with s-wave superconductors initiates strong superconducting order in the nontrivial surface states. However, bulk insulating topological (Bi1−xSbx)2Te3 films on bulk Nb instead exhibit a giant attenuation of surface superconductivity, even for films only two layers thick. This massive suppression of proximity pairing is evidenced by ultrahigh-resolution band mappings and by contrasting quantified superconducting gaps with those of heavily n-doped topological Bi2Se3/Nb. The results underscore the limitations of using superconducting proximity effects to realize topological superconductivity in nearly intrinsic systems.

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