Superconducting topological metals (SCTMs) have recently emerged as a promising platform of topological superconductivity (TSC) and Majorana zero modes(MZMs) for quantum computation. Despite their importance in both fundamental research and applications, SCTMs are very rare in nature. In addition, some superconductors with topological electronic structures have been reported recently, but a feasible program to determine their TSC properties is still lacking. Here, we propose a new strategy to design SCTMs by intercalating the superconducting units into the topological insulators. A program that characterizes the superconducting BdG Chern number of 2D BdG Hamiltonian from ab initio calculations is also developed. Following this strategy, PdBi2Te5 and PdBi2Te4 are found to be experimentally synthesizable and ideal SCTMs. Chiral TSC could be realized in such SCTMs by incorporating topological surface states with Zeeman effect, which can be realized by an external magnetic field or in proximity to ferromagnetic (FM) insulator. Our strategy provides a new method for identifying the SCTMs and TSC candidates, and the program makes it possible to design and modulate the TSC candidates from ab initio calculations.
@article{arxiv.2301.02844,
title = {Topological superconductor candidates PdBi$_2$Te$_4$ and PdBi$_2$Te$_5$ from a generic ab initio strategy},
author = {Aiyun Luo and Ying Li and Yi Qin and Jingnan Hu and Biao Lian and Gang Xu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2301.02844},
year = {2023}
}