npj Computational Materials (Mar 2021)

Prediction of intrinsic topological superconductivity in Mn-doped GeTe monolayer from first-principles

  • Xiaoming Zhang,
  • Kyung-Hwan Jin,
  • Jiahao Mao,
  • Mingwen Zhao,
  • Zheng Liu,
  • Feng Liu

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41524-021-00511-x
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 1
pp. 1 – 8

Abstract

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Abstract The recent discovery of topological superconductors (TSCs) has sparked enormous interest. The realization of TSC requires a delicate tuning of multiple microscopic parameters, which remains a great challenge. Here, we develop a first-principles approach to quantify realistic conditions of TSC by solving self-consistently Bogoliubov-de Gennes equation based on a Wannier function construction of band structure, in presence of Rashba spin-orbit coupling, Zeeman splitting and electron-phonon coupling. We further demonstrate the power of this method by predicting the Mn-doped GeTe (Ge1-x Mn x Te) monolayer—a well-known dilute magnetic semiconductor showing superconductivity under hole doping—to be a Class D TSC with Chern number of −1 and chiral Majorana edge modes. By constructing a first-principles phase diagram in the parameter space of temperature and Mn concentration, we propose the TSC phase can be induced at a lower-limit transition temperature of ~40 mK and the Mn concentration of x~0.015%. Our approach can be generally applied to TSCs with a phonon-mediated pairing, providing useful guidance for future experiments.