Topological nodal $i$-wave superconductivity in PtBi$_2$
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2025
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| author | Changdar, Susmita Suvorov, Oleksandr Kuibarov, Andrii Thirupathaiah, Setti Shipunov, Grigoriy Aswartham, Saicharan Wurmehl, Sabine Kovalchuk, Iryna Koepernik, Klaus Timm, Carsten Büchner, Bernd Fulga, Ion Cosma Borisenko, Sergey Brink, Jeroen van den |
| author_facet | Changdar, Susmita Suvorov, Oleksandr Kuibarov, Andrii Thirupathaiah, Setti Shipunov, Grigoriy Aswartham, Saicharan Wurmehl, Sabine Kovalchuk, Iryna Koepernik, Klaus Timm, Carsten Büchner, Bernd Fulga, Ion Cosma Borisenko, Sergey Brink, Jeroen van den |
| contents | Most superconducting materials are well-understood and conventional in the sense that the pairs of electrons that cause the superconductivity by their condensation have the highest possible symmetry. Famous exceptions are the enigmatic high-$T_c$ cuprate superconductors. Nodes in their superconducting gap are the fingerprint of their unconventional character and imply superconducting pairing of $d$-wave symmetry. Here, using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we observe that the Weyl semimetal PtBi$_2$ harbors nodes in its superconducting gap, implying unconventional $i$-wave pairing symmetry. At temperatures below $10\,\mathrm{K}$, the superconductivity in PtBi$_2$ gaps out its topological surface states, the Fermi arcs, while its bulk states remain normal. The nodes in the superconducting gap that we observe are located exactly at the center of the Fermi arcs, and imply the presence of topologically protected Majorana cones around this locus in momentum space. From this, we infer theoretically that robust zero-energy Majorana flat bands emerge at surface step edges. This not only establishes PtBi$_2$ surfaces as unconventional, topological $i$-wave superconductors but also as a promising material platform in the ongoing effort to generate and manipulate Majorana bound states. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_01774 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Topological nodal $i$-wave superconductivity in PtBi$_2$ Changdar, Susmita Suvorov, Oleksandr Kuibarov, Andrii Thirupathaiah, Setti Shipunov, Grigoriy Aswartham, Saicharan Wurmehl, Sabine Kovalchuk, Iryna Koepernik, Klaus Timm, Carsten Büchner, Bernd Fulga, Ion Cosma Borisenko, Sergey Brink, Jeroen van den Superconductivity Most superconducting materials are well-understood and conventional in the sense that the pairs of electrons that cause the superconductivity by their condensation have the highest possible symmetry. Famous exceptions are the enigmatic high-$T_c$ cuprate superconductors. Nodes in their superconducting gap are the fingerprint of their unconventional character and imply superconducting pairing of $d$-wave symmetry. Here, using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we observe that the Weyl semimetal PtBi$_2$ harbors nodes in its superconducting gap, implying unconventional $i$-wave pairing symmetry. At temperatures below $10\,\mathrm{K}$, the superconductivity in PtBi$_2$ gaps out its topological surface states, the Fermi arcs, while its bulk states remain normal. The nodes in the superconducting gap that we observe are located exactly at the center of the Fermi arcs, and imply the presence of topologically protected Majorana cones around this locus in momentum space. From this, we infer theoretically that robust zero-energy Majorana flat bands emerge at surface step edges. This not only establishes PtBi$_2$ surfaces as unconventional, topological $i$-wave superconductors but also as a promising material platform in the ongoing effort to generate and manipulate Majorana bound states. |
| title | Topological nodal $i$-wave superconductivity in PtBi$_2$ |
| topic | Superconductivity |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.01774 |