Growth & Spectroscopic Imaging of Interface Superconductivity

超导性是多种技术的核心，包括医学成像，能源管理和强大的新形式的计算。这些技术从特殊应用扩展到世界范围的进步将需要新材料的开发。我和我的研究团队将在我在大块超导体研究方面的成功记录的基础上，解决界面超导性的新兴前沿问题。我们将结合联合收割机分子束磊晶（MBE）和扫描探针显微镜，以创造、了解和控制原子尺度的超导界面。我们将考虑三种类型的界面：铁基超导体，铜酸盐超导体和拓扑超导体。 首先，我和我的学生将探索最近报道的SrTiO 3上单层FeSe薄膜的超导转变温度（Tc）显著提高了10倍。第二，我们将追求一个平行的搜索增强界面超导铜酸盐，其中散装Tc较高，这表明更大的改进。我们将使用一种新的混合有机生长技术来提高铜酸盐薄膜质量-从而推出一种在加拿大独一无二的薄膜生长设备。我在铁基和铜基材料方面的长期目标是使用原子分辨率成像来增加基本的理解，并指导我们的MBE努力配对其他材料，以进一步提高Tc。 第三，我们将研究拓扑超导体的新兴前沿。最近发现的拓扑材料具有强大的，自旋极化的表面状态，引发了许多革命性应用的想法，包括容错量子计算拓扑超导性。我们将在各种超导体上生长拓扑薄膜，并采用磁场依赖成像来寻找预测的新物质相的关键特征。 我们对界面超导性的深入研究，包括铜酸盐，铁基超导体和拓扑材料，将建立在与其他加拿大研究人员的现有合作基础上。我们对新材料的开发将促进与实验学家的新合作，他们的表征能力与我们的互补。最后，在材料科学和物理学这一前沿领域的研究将为我的学生和博士后提供良好的培训，并扩展在计算，能源和医疗行业推出重要应用所需的基本理解。

Superconductivity lies at the heart of multiple technologies including medical imaging, energy management, and powerful new forms of computing. Expansion of these technologies from niche applications to worldwide advances will require new material development. My research team and I will build on my successful track record in the study of bulk superconductors, to address the emerging frontier of interface superconductivity. We will combine molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and scanning probe microscopy to create, understand, and control superconducting interfaces at the atomic scale. We will consider three types of interfaces: iron-based superconductors, cuprate superconductors, and topological superconductors.      First, my students and I will explore the remarkable ten-fold enhancement of superconducting transition temperature (Tc) recently reported in single-layer FeSe films on SrTiO3. Second, we will pursue a parallel search for enhanced interface superconductivity in cuprates, where the bulk Tcs are higher, suggesting greater improvements to come. We will use a novel hybrid organic growth technique to improve cuprate film quality – thus launching a film growth facility which would be unique in Canada. My long term goal in both iron- and copper-based materials is to use atomic resolution imaging to increase the fundamental understanding, and guide our MBE efforts to pair other materials, to further enhance Tc.      Third, we will investigate the emerging frontier of topological superconductors. The recent discovery of topological materials with robust, spin polarized surface states prompted numerous ideas for revolutionary applications, including fault-tolerant quantum computing enabled by topological superconductivity. We will grow topological films on a variety of superconductors, and employ magnetic-field-dependent imaging to search for key signatures of the predicted new phase of matter.      Our thorough investigation of interface superconductivity, including cuprates, iron-based superconductors, and topological materials, will build upon existing collaborations with other Canadian researchers. Our growth of new materials will prompt new collaborations with experimentalists whose characterization capabilities are complementary to our own. Finally, the research in this forefront area of materials science and physics will provide excellent training for my students and postdocs, and extend the fundamental understanding necessary to launch significant applications in computing, energy, and medical industries.