High-temperature topological superconductor devices

Producing new effects through the combination of different materials has a long history in science and technology.  One of the most intriguing recent ideas is the emergence of Majorana fermions when a topological insulator is placed in proximity with a superconductor.  Towards this goal, we produced high-temperature superconductivity in the topological insulator Bi₂Se₃ via the proximity to Bi₂Sr₂CaCu₂O_8+δ.
This was achieved through a new mechanical bonding technique enabling the fabrication of high-quality junctions fundamental fundamental between novel materials, unobtainable by conventional approaches. The results presented here open new directions for fundamental studies in condensed matter physics and enable a wide range of applications in spintronics and quantum fundamental computing.