David Antognini Silva^1,2, Yu Wang³, Nicolae Atodiresei¹, Felix Friedrich³, Stefan Blügel^1,2, Matthias Bode^3,4, Philipp Rüßmann^1,5*, Artem Odobesko³

1 Peter Grünberg Institut, Forschungszentrum Jülich and JARA, 52425 Jülich, Germany

2 Institute for Theoretical Physics, RWTH Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany

3 Physikalisches Institut, Experimentelle Physik II, Universität Würzburg, Am Hubland, 97074 Würzburg, Germany

4 Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen-Center for Complex Material Systems (RCCM), Universität Würzburg, Am Hubland, 97074 Würzburg, Germany

5 Institute of Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics, University of Würzburg, 97074 Würzburg, Germany

* Corresponding authors emails: p.ruessmann@fz-juelich.de

DOI10.24435/materialscloud:ey-vn [version v1]

Publication date: Dec 09, 2024

How to cite this record

David Antognini Silva, Yu Wang, Nicolae Atodiresei, Felix Friedrich, Stefan Blügel, Matthias Bode, Philipp Rüßmann, Artem Odobesko, Rare-earth atoms on Nb(110) as a platform to engineer topological superconductivity, Materials Cloud Archive 2024.196 (2024), https://doi.org/10.24435/materialscloud:ey-vn

Description

Our study reveals how Gd adatoms and dimers on a superconducting Nb(110) surface induce Yu-Shiba-Rusinov (YSR) states, offering valuable insights into magnetic interactions of rare-earth atoms on superconducting surfaces. By engineering Gd dimers along the [1-10] and [001] directions, we uncover an indirect coupling between the Gd magnetic moments and the Nb substrate via their valence d electrons, leading to significant alterations in the YSR spectrum around the dimers. We further demonstrate the possibility for Néel-type spin-spiral ground states in chains of Gd atoms on Nb(110). These findings highlight the potential of 4f elements like Gd as a promising platform for controlling a spin-spiral ground state, a crucial prerequisite for realizing a topological superconductor that can host Majorana zero modes. The combination of theoretical modeling based on density functional theory, atomistic spin-dynamics simulations and experimental techniques, including scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy, provides a comprehensive understanding of the coupling mechanisms and their impact on the electronic properties of these systems and establishes rare-earth magnets on Nb as a promising platform in the field. This dataset collects the experimental and theoretical results of this work.

Materials Cloud sections using this data

Files

File name	Size	Description
Spin_dynamics.ipynb MD5md5:c4f67688ae5062cad0f958a43edb546c	3.0 MiB	Notebook for plotting and data analysis of the spin-dynamics simulations
export_spirit.aiida MD5md5:8f025e290682458f10490f69ff8f4b32 Open this AiiDA archive on renkulab.io (https://renkulab.io/)	20.7 MiB	AiiDA export file containing the data used in "Spin_dynamics.ipynb"
requirements_spirit.txt MD5md5:a1c1a77cc17955f2647180f2686a18d4	4.5 KiB	Python environment used in "Spin_dynamics.ipynb"
Figures_Gd_paper.ipynb MD5md5:ac615c25cad05023680aae9e5fc6e26d	1.5 MiB	Notebook for plotting and data analysis of the KKR calculations (Jij, KS-BdG)
export_kkr.aiida MD5md5:f4fe0b07b17073036a84ef60053935eb Open this AiiDA archive on renkulab.io (https://renkulab.io/)	18.2 GiB	AiiDA export file containing data used in "Figures_kkr.ipynb"
requirements_kkr.txt MD5md5:a21fb7ffe9c49b8ca27ea1f27d4f76b9	4.5 KiB	Python environment used in "Figures_kkr.ipynb"
data.zip MD5md5:35d3c17e571ead1951d895aa849557fe	43.8 KiB	Raw data files for STM and STS measurements
2Gd_short.tar.gz MD5md5:f5adfdca3da9302f441198912291b193	523.8 MiB	VASP data of Gd short dimer
2Gd_long.tar.gz MD5md5:20a51b0d7e199a54f5db71f3eb45d6f9	526.2 MiB	VASP data of long Gd dimer

License

Files and data are licensed under the terms of the following license: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International.
Metadata, except for email addresses, are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 4.0 International license.

External references

Keywords

Superconductivity topological materials Majorana zero mode Topological superconductor magnetism adatoms rare-earth DFT+U spin-dynamics STM spin-spiral