Superconductivity at the Normal Metal/Dirac Semimetal Cd3As2 Interface

Abstract

We investigate the interface between a three-dimensional Dirac semimetal Cd3As2 and a normal metal via soft-point contact spectroscopy measurement. The superconducting gap features were detected below 3.8 K and 7.1 K in the case of Cd3As2 single crystals sputter-coated with the Pt and Au films, respectively, in the differential conductance dI/dV–V plots of the point contacts. As the applied magnetic field increased, the drop in the zero-bias contact resistance shifted toward lower temperatures. The topologically non-trivial band structure of Cd3As2 is considered to play a crucial role in inducing the superconductivity. Apart from realizing superconductivity in topological materials, our creative approach can be used to investigate possible topological superconductivity and exhibits a high application potential in electronic devices.