Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

A topological superconductor (TSC) is a new type of superconductor with non-trivial topology in its bulk electronic structure, which has great potential in both fundamental research and application. However, despite the intensive research efforts worldwide, to date only a few intrinsic (non-heterostructures) materials have been proposed as TSC candidates. In this work, following the theoretical prediction, we experimentally studied a newly proposed TSC candidate, TaSe3. The topological non-trivial surface states were directly observed by using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, while the superconductivity of the compound was examined by both transport and scanning tunneling microscopy measurement. Therefore, TaSe3 was proved to be a promising candidate as a TSC, and a promising research platform for the related novel physics phenomena.