2020/09/07 by Vishal Bhardwaj, Bhardwaj, Vishal, Anupam Bhattacharya +12
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Heusler alloys: electronic and magnetic properties #Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con) #Topological Materials and Phenomena
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2009.03018
openalex publication_date 2020/09/07 · openalex created_date 2022/07/25 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Half-Heusler compounds exhibit a remarkable variety of emergent properties\nsuch as heavy-fermion behaviour, unconventional superconductivity and\nmagnetism. Several of these compounds have been predicted to host topologically\nnon-trivial electronic structures. Remarkably, recent theoretical studies have\nindicated the possibility to induce non-trivial topological surface states in\nan otherwise trivial half-Heusler system by strain engineering. Here, using\nmagneto-transport measurements and first principles DFT-based simulations, we\ndemonstrate topological surface states on strained [110] oriented thin films of\nYPdBi grown on (100) MgO. These topological surface states arise in an\notherwise trivial semi-metal purely driven by strain. Furthermore, we observe\nthe onset of superconductivity in these strained films highlighting the\npossibility of engineering a topological superconducting state. Our results\ndemonstrate the critical role played by strain in engineering novel topological\nstates in thin film systems for developing next-generation spintronic devices.\n