RESUMO
Two-dimensional topological insulators (2D TIs) have distinct electronic properties that make them attractive for various applications, especially in spintronics. The conductive edge states in 2D TIs are protected from disorder and perturbations and are spin-polarized, which restrict current flow to a single spin orientation. In contrast, topological nodal line semimetals (TNLSM) are distinct from TIs because of the presence of a 1D ring of degeneracy formed from two bands that cross each other along a line in the Brillouin zone. These nodal lines are protected by topology and can be destroyed only by breaking certain symmetry conditions, making them highly resilient to disorder and defects. However, 2D TNLSMs do not possess protected boundary modes, which makes their investigation challenging. There have been several theoretical predictions of 2D TNLSMs, however, experimental realizations are rare. ß-Sn, a metallic allotrope of tin with a superconducting temperature of 3.72 K, may be a candidate for a topological superconductor that can host Majorana Fermions for quantum computing. In this work, single layers of α-Sn and ß-Sn on a Cu(111) substrate are successfully prepared and studied using scanning tunneling microscopy, angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, and density functional theory calculations. The lattice and electronic structure undergo a topological transition from 2D topological insulator α-Sn to 2D TNLSM ß-Sn, with two types of nodal lines coexisting in monolayer ß-Sn. Such a realization of two types of nodal lines in one 2D material has not been reported to date. Moreover, we also observed an unexpected phenomenon of freestanding-like electronic structures of ß-Sn/Cu(111), highlighting the potential of ultrathin ß-Sn films as a platform for exploring the electronic properties of 2D TNLSM and topological superconductors, such as few-layer superconducting ß-Sn in lateral contact with topological nodal line single-layer ß-Sn.
RESUMO
Since two gap superconductivity was discovered in MgB2, research on multigap superconductors has attracted increasing attention because of its intriguing fundamental physics. In MgB2, the Mg atom donates two electrons to the borophene layer, resulting in a stronger gap from the σ band and a weaker gap from the π bond. First-principles calculations demonstrate that the two gap anisotropic superconductivity strongly enhances the transition temperature of MgB2 in comparison with that given by the isotropic model. In this work, we report a three-band (B-σ, B-π, and La-d) two-gap superconductor LaB2 with very high Tc = 30 K by solving the fully anisotropic Migdal-Eliashberg equation. Because of the σ and π-d hybridization on the Fermi surface, the electron-phonon coupling constant λ = 1.5 is significantly larger than the λ = 0.7 of MgB2. Our work paves a new route to enhance the electron-phonon coupling strength of multigap superconductors with d orbitals. On the other hand, our analysis reveals that LaB2 belongs to the weak topological semimetal category, leading to a possible topological superconductor with the highest Tc to date. Moreover, upon applying pressure and/or doping, the topology is tunable between weak and strong with Tc varying from 15 to 30 K, opening up a flexible platform for manipulating topological superconductors.