Department of Physics

The material search for topological superconductors is fueled by the prediction of Majorana zero modes (MZM), which are exotic boundary excitations that are promising candidates for topological qubits. Yet, materials hosting topological superconductivity with MZMs are still rare to date. In this talk, I will show that MZM can occur at the corners of two- or three-dimensional inversion-symmetric superconductors without utilizing proximity effect. Using monolayer WTe2 and bulk MoTe2 as case studies, I will present how to obtain comprehensive recipes for finding such ‘higher-order’ topological superconductors from mathematically derived topological invariants. Then by combining DFT band structure calculations and pairing symmetry analyses, I will show that WTe2 and MoTe2 are promising candidates that satisfy the recipes and could host Majorana corner modes.