Anisotropic Full-Gap Superconductivity in 2M-WS<sub>2</sub> Topological Metal with Intrinsic Proximity Effect
Chao-Sheng Lian, Si Chen, Wenhui Duan
Abstract
Layered 2M-WS2 is recently observed to show Majorana bound states in vortices, but its superconducting pairing mechanism remains unknown, hindering the understanding of its topological superconducting nature. Using the ab initio Migdal–Eliashberg theory and electron–phonon Wannier interpolation, we demonstrate that both bulk and bilayer 2M-WS2 have a single anisotropic full-gap superconducting order of s-wave symmetry. We successfully reproduce the experimental superconducting critical temperature for the bulk and predict the bilayer 2M-WS2, a two-dimensional (2D) Z2 topological metal with nontrivial edge states right at the Fermi energy, to superconduct at 7 K, much higher than that in most 2D transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs). A distinct proximity-enhanced surface superconductivity is further revealed by simulating quasiparticle density of states. This work unveils a universal electron–phonon full-gap pairing in 2M group VI TMDs and suggests a strong intrinsic surface-bulk proximity effect for 2M-WS2, paving the way to engineering topological superconductivity in TMD-based nanoscale devices.