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Highly transparent superconducting contacts to a topological insulator (TI) remain a persistent challenge on the route to engineer topological superconductivity. Recently, the higher-order TI WTe2 was shown to turn superconducting when placed on palladium (Pd) bottom contacts, demonstrating a promising material system in perusing this goal. Here, we report the diffusion of Pd into WTe2 and the formation of superconducting PdTex as the origin of observed superconductivity. We find an atomically sharp interface between the diffusion layer and its host crystal, forming state-of-the-art superconducting contacts to a TI. The diffusion is discovered to be non-uniform along the width of the WTe2 crystal, with a greater extend along the edges compared to the bulk. The potential of this contacting method is highlighted in transport measurements on Josephson junctions by employing external superconducting leads.

Rights:

• Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 International
  

Keyword: Superconducting contacts, topological insulator, PdTex

Date published: 2022-08-29

Publisher: American Physical Society (APS)

Journal:

• Physical Review Materials (ISSN: 24759953) vol. 6 issue. 8 L081201

Funding:

• U.S. Department of Energy
• Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung
• Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
• Swiss Nanoscience Institute
• Office of Science
• Basic Energy Sciences
• Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation GBMF9069
• Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology JPMJCR15F3

Manuscript type: Publisher's version (Version of record)

MDR DOI:

First published URL: https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevmaterials.6.l081201

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Updated at: 2025-02-28 12:30:13 +0900

Published on MDR: 2025-02-28 12:30:14 +0900