Proximity-induced surface superconductivity in Dirac semimetal Cd3As2

• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-10233-w
• Publication Date: 2019-05-17T10:04:09Z
• Authors: Ce Huang; Benjamin T. Zhou; Huiqin Zhang; Bingjia Yang; Ran Liu; Hanwen Wang; Yimin Wan; Ke Huang; Zhiming Liao; Enze Zhang; Shanshan Liu; Qingsong Deng; Yanhui Chen; Xiaodong Han; Jin Zou; Xi Lin; Zheng Han; Yihua Wang; Kam Tuen Law; Faxian Xiu
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; 0303 health sciences; 1300 Biochemistry; Science; Q; General Physics and Astronomy; Genetics and Molecular Biology; General Chemistry; 1600 Chemistry; 530; Article; 03 medical and health sciences; General Biochemistry; 3100 Physics and Astronomy

Cd3As2 is a three-dimensional Dirac semimetal with separated points in momentum space. In spite of extensive transport and spectroscopic studies on its exotic properties, the evidence superconductivity surface states remains elusive. Here, we report observation proximity-induced Nb/Cd3As2 hybrid structures. Our four-terminal measurement identifies pronounced pairing gap (gap size comparable to Nb) surfaces, which exhibits flat conductance plateau differential spectra, consistent our theoretical simulations. The supercurrent from Nb/Cd3As2/Nb junctions also achieved Fraunhofer/SQUID-like pattern under out-of-plane/in-plane magnetic fields, respectively. resultant mapping shows predominant distribution top bottom surfaces as bulk carriers are depleted, can be regarded higher dimensional analog edge two-dimensional quantum spin Hall insulators. study provides semimetals.