Coexistence of Superconductivity and Antiferromagnetism in Topological Magnet MnBi2Te4 Films.

The interface of two materials can harbor unexpected emergent phenomena. One example is interface-induced superconductivity. In this work, we employ molecular beam epitaxy to grow a series of heterostructures formed by stacking together two nonsuperconducting antiferromagnetic materials, an intrinsic antiferromagnetic topological insulator MnBi2Te4 and an antiferromagnetic iron chalcogenide FeTe. Our electrical transport measurements reveal interface-induced superconductivity in these heterostructures. By performing scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy measurements, we observe a proximity-induced superconducting gap on the top surface of the MnBi2Te4 layer, confirming the coexistence of superconductivity and antiferromagnetism in the MnBi2Te4 layer. Our findings will advance the fundamental inquiries into the topological superconducting phase in hybrid devices and provide a promising platform for the exploration of chiral Majorana physics in MnBi2Te4-based heterostructures.

A full-dimensional quantum dynamical study of H2+H2 collisions: coupled-states versus close-coupling formulation.

Collision-induced energy transfer involving H2 molecules plays an important role in many areas of physics. Kinetic models often require a complete set of state-to-state rate coefficients for H2+H2 collisions in order to interpret results from spectroscopic observations or to make quantitative predictions. Recent progress in full-dimensional quantum dynamics using the numerically exact close-coupling (CC) formulation has provided good agreement with existing experimental data for low-lying states of H2 and increased the number of state-to-state cross sections that may be reliably determined over a broad range of energies. Nevertheless, there exist many possible initial states (e.g., states with high rotational excitation) that still remain elusive from a computational standpoint even at relatively low collision energies. In these cases, the coupled-states (CS) approximation offers an alternative full-dimensional formulation. We assess the accuracy of the CS approximation for H2+H2 collisions by comparison with benchmark results obtained using the CC formulation. The results are used to provide insight into the orientation effects of the various internal energy transfer mechanisms. A statistical CS approximation is also investigated and cross sections are reported for transitions which would otherwise be impractical to compute.

Interface-induced superconductivity in magnetic topological insulators.

The interface between two different materials can show unexpected quantum phenomena. In this study, we used molecular beam epitaxy to synthesize heterostructures formed by stacking together two magnetic materials, a ferromagnetic topological insulator (TI) and an antiferromagnetic iron chalcogenide (FeTe). We observed emergent interface-induced superconductivity in these heterostructures and demonstrated the co-occurrence of superconductivity, ferromagnetism, and topological band structure in the magnetic TI layer-the three essential ingredients of chiral topological superconductivity (TSC). The unusual coexistence of ferromagnetism and superconductivity is accompanied by a high upper critical magnetic field that exceeds the Pauli paramagnetic limit for conventional superconductors at low temperatures. These magnetic TI/FeTe heterostructures with robust superconductivity and atomically sharp interfaces provide an ideal wafer-scale platform for the exploration of chiral TSC and Majorana physics.