Science Daily April 30, 2018
Using a novel “flip-chip” technique an international team of researchers (USA – University of Illinois, Japan) prepared single-crystalline Bi2Se3 films with predetermined thicknesses in terms of quintuple layers (QLs) on top of Nb substrates fresh from in situ cleavage. Measurements of the film surface disclosed superconducting gaps and coherence peaks of similar magnitude for both the topological surface states and bulk states and revealed key characteristics relevant to the mechanism of coupling between the topological surface states and the superconducting Nb substrate. This new sample preparation method opens many new avenues in research, building a better superconductor, miniaturization of electronic devices, and in spintronic computing… read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
This is a close-up shot of the atomic layer by layer molecular beam epitaxy system used to grow the topological insulator thin-film samples for this study. Credit: L. Brian Stauffer, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign