A new study reveals that PtBi2, an otherwise ordinary-looking crystal, hosts an entirely new form of superconductivity confined to its top and bottom surfaces.
Something unusual is happening inside the compound platinum-bismuth-two (PtBi2). A new investigation by scientists at IFW Dresden and the Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat shows that although PtBi2 appears to be a standard metallic crystal, the electrons inside behave in ways that have never been observed in other materials.
In 2024, the same group discovered that the top and bottom surfaces of PtBi2 become superconducting, which means the electrons at these surfaces pair up and move without resistance. Their latest results indicate that this pairing follows rules unlike those of any known superconductor. Even more intriguing, the edges surrounding these superconducting regions host elusive Majorana particles, which could serve as fault-tolerant quantum bits (qubits) for future quantum computers.
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