Topological Interlayer Superconductivity in a van der Waals Heterostructure

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that a van der Waals heterostructure with a honeycomb antiferromagnetic insulator sandwiched between TMD monolayers can host topological interlayer superconductivity with Majorana edge modes.

Contribution

It introduces a novel mechanism where magnons mediate interlayer pairing, leading to coexisting s-wave and p-wave superconducting gaps with topological properties.

Findings

Coexistence of extended s-wave and chiral p-wave gaps.

Emergence of topological Majorana edge modes.

Magnon-mediated interlayer pairing mechanism.

Abstract

We show that when a honeycomb antiferromagnetic insulator (AFMI) is sandwiched between two transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) monolayers in a commensurate way, magnons in the AFMI can mediate an interaction between electrons in the TMDs that gives rise to interlayer Cooper pairing. This interaction opens coexisting extended $s$-wave and chiral $p$-wave superconducting gaps in the energy spectrum of the coupled system, and the latter give rise to topological Majorana edge modes.