Inversion-Protected Higher-Order Topological Superconductivity in Monolayer WTe2

Monolayer WTe2, a centrosymmetric transition metal dichacogenide, has recently been established as a quantum spin Hall insulator and found superconducting upon gating. Here we study the pairing symmetry and topological nature of superconducting WTe2 with a microscopic model at mean-field level. Surp...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2020-08, Vol.125 (9), p.1
Main Authors: Hsu, Yi-Ting, Cole, William S, Zhang, Rui-Xing, Sau, Jay D
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Fermi surfaces
Monolayers
Phase diagrams
Playgrounds
Proximity effect (electricity)
Superconductivity
Symmetry
Topology
Transition metals
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Summary:Monolayer WTe2, a centrosymmetric transition metal dichacogenide, has recently been established as a quantum spin Hall insulator and found superconducting upon gating. Here we study the pairing symmetry and topological nature of superconducting WTe2 with a microscopic model at mean-field level. Surprisingly, we find that the spin-triplet phases in our phase diagram all host Majorana modes localized on two opposite corners. Even when the conventional pairing is favored, we find that an intermediate in-plane magnetic field exceeding the Pauli limit stabilizes an unconventional equal-spin pairing aligning with the field, which also hosts Majorana corner modes. Motivated by our findings, we obtain a recipe for two-dimensional superconductors featuring "higher-order topology" from the boundary perspective. Generally, a superconducting inversion-symmetric quantum spin Hall material whose normal-state Fermi surface is away from high-symmetry points, such as gated monolayer WTe2, hosts Majorana corner modes if the superconductivity is parity-odd. We further point out that this higher-order phase is an inversion-protected topological crystalline superconductor and study the bulk-boundary correspondence. Finally, we discuss possible experiments for probing the Majorana corner modes. Our findings suggest superconducting monolayer WTe2 is a playground for higher-order topological superconductivity and possibly the first material realization for inversion-protected Majorana corner modes without utilizing proximity effect.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.097001