Overview
- IFW Dresden and the Würzburg–Dresden ct.qmat report that PtBi2 superconducts only on its top and bottom surfaces, leaving the interior metallic and forming a natural superconductor–metal–superconductor structure.
- High-resolution measurements reveal an unprecedented six-fold restricted pairing on the surfaces, with electrons in six symmetric directions refusing to pair.
- Theoretical calculations in the Nature paper indicate the surface state yields Majorana modes confined to the crystal’s edges, which could be created at will by cutting or engineering step edges.
- Researchers plan follow-up experiments to manipulate these quasiparticles, including thinning the crystal to tune the interior toward an insulator and applying magnetic fields to reposition them.
- The intrinsic nature of PtBi2 avoids complex heterostructures and offers a promising platform for more robust, fault-tolerant quantum device architectures.