Coexistence of Superconductivity and Antiferromagnetism in Topological Magnet MnBi₂Te₄ Films

Abstract

The interface of two materials can harbor unexpected emergent phenomena. One example is interface-induced superconductivity. In this work, we employ molecular beam epitaxy to grow a series of heterostructures formed by stacking together two nonsuperconducting antiferromagnetic materials, an intrinsic antiferromagnetic topological insulator MnBi 2 Te 4 and an antiferromagnetic iron chalcogenide FeTe. Our electrical transport measurements reveal interface-induced superconductivity in these heterostructures. By performing scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy measurements, we observe a proximity-induced superconducting gap on the top surface of the MnBi 2 Te 4 layer, confirming the coexistence of superconductivity and antiferromagnetism in the MnBi 2 Te 4 layer. Our findings will advance the fundamental inquiries into the topological superconducting phase in hybrid devices and provide a promising platform for the exploration of chiral Majorana physics in MnBi 2 Te 4 -based heterostructures.