Project description
Investigating high-temperature topological superconductivity in a new class of materials
New discoveries that keep coming out every year are capturing the hearts of condensed-matter physicists. Recent breakthroughs in the field include topological insulators and superconductors, high-temperature superconductivity in hydrates and pnictides and a plethora of many-body phases in the (topological) flat bands of moiré lattices. These seminal advances have helped scientists better understand and predict new states of matter, especially an intriguing class of materials – high-temperature superconductors. The EU-funded SuperFlat project plans to study new phases of matter and flat band superconductive materials with efficient catalytic properties and new topologies.
Objective
Physics is at the brink of a quantum revolution. Condensed matter research keep churning out breakthroughs almost every year. Topological insulators and superconductors, high-temperature su- perconductivity in hydrates under pressure and in pnictides, and a plethora of many-body phases in the (topological) flat bands of Moire lattices, are some of the paradigm-shifting discoveries of the past years. These seminal advances allow us to understand and predict new states of matter, with one possible goal of finding High-Temperature superconductivity. Using in-house tools developed by the PI, SuperFlat proposes a program of seminal advances focusing on new phases of matter and mate- rials exhibiting flat bands with high-temperature bulk and surface superconductivity, high catalytic properties and new topology. Specifically, SuperFlat will investigate six new intertwined directions: (1) Development of unifying principles to create flat bands whose electrons are not localized on atoms (2) Accurate prediction of materials with such electronic flat bands in the bulk and surface (3) Predic- tion of electron-phonon and electron-electron interactions in the flat bands of the discovered materials (4) Prediction of high-temperature superconductivity or other phases of matter in the discovered flat bands (5) Prediction of surface states, with flat bands, in all the large-gap (obstructed) insulators in nature (6) Concomitant analysis of the catalytic properties of the surface states in the obstructed insulators. The PI’s track record of developing new theoretical fields and experimentally realized pre- dictions - (a) the first topological insulator (HgTe), Weyl semimetal (TaAs), type 2 Weyl semimetal (WTe2), non-symmorphic insulator (KHgSb), higher order topological states (HOTI) (Bi, WTe2) (b) phonon-based superconductivity, flat-band topology, and related many-body numerics in Moire lat- tices (c) the existing in-house high-throughput materials databases to be used for the search
Fields of science
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Funding Scheme
ERC-ADG - Advanced GrantHost institution
20018 Donostia San Sebastian
Spain