Microscopic Fingerprint of Chiral Superconductivity
Abstract
Chiral superconductors have long been theorized to break time-reversal symmetry and support exotic topological features such as Majorana modes and spontaneous edge currents, promising ingredients for quantum technologies. Although several unconventional superconductors may exhibit time-reversal symmetry breaking, clear microscopic evidence of chiral pairing has remained out of reach. In this work, we demonstrate direct real-space signatures of chiral superconductivity in a single atomic layer of tin on Si(111). Using quasiparticle interference imaging, we detected symmetry-locked nodal and antinodal points in the Bogoliubov quasiparticle wave function, tightly bound to atomic point defects in the tin lattice. These nodal features, along with their surrounding texture, form a distinct real-space pattern exhibiting a clear and exclusive hallmark of chiral superconductivity. Our findings, reinforced by analytical theory and numerical simulations, offer unambiguous evidence of chiral pairing in a two-dimensional material.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Surface and Thin Film Phenomena
Topological Materials and Phenomena
Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Physical Review X
- Publisher
- American Physical Society (APS)
- Volume
- 16
- Issue
- 1
- Publication date
- 15 January 2026
- Language
- EN