Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 1, 2026

Scalable Quantum Integrated Circuits on Superconducting Two-Dimensional Electron Gas Platform
Published on: August 2, 2019
Ultrathin Films of Superconducting Metals as a Platform for Topological Superconductivity
Chao Lei1, Hua Chen2,3, Allan H MacDonald1
1Department of Physics, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA.
Abstract:
The ingredients normally required to achieve topological superconductivity (TSC) are Cooper pairing, broken inversion symmetry, and broken time-reversal symmetry. We present a theoretical exploration of the possibility of using ultrathin films of superconducting metals as a platform for TSC. Because they necessarily break inversion symmetry when prepared on a substrate and have intrinsic Cooper pairing, they can be TSCs when time-reversal symmetry is broken by an external magnetic field. Using microscopic density functional theory calculations we show that, for ultrathin Pb and β-Sn superconductors, the position of the Fermi level can be tuned to quasi-2D band extrema energies using strain, and that the g factors of states at time-reversal invariant momenta can be extremely large, enhancing the influence of external magnetic fields.
Related Concept Videos
Bonding in Metals
Metallic Solids
All metallic solids exhibit high thermal and electrical conductivity, metallic luster, and malleability....
Alkali Metals
Table 1: Properties of the alkali metals
Metal-Ligand Bonds
In these complexes, transition metals form coordinate covalent bonds, a kind of Lewis acid-base interaction in which both of the electrons in the bond are contributed by a donor (Lewis base) to an electron acceptor (Lewis acid). The Lewis acid in...
Properties of Transition Metals
Theory of Metallic Conduction
In this theory, Newton's second law of motion is used to determine the acceleration of an electron in the presence of an applied electric field. Then, its velocity is expressed via this acceleration.
An electron moves through the crystal, containing positive ions,...

