Tuning Unconventional Superconductivity in van der Waals Heterostructures

Van der Waals heterostructures provide an exceptional playground to tackle unconventional superconductivity. In a van der Waals heterostructure, each layer is a building block, and depending on their combination, can give rise to different phenomena. Interlayer alignment (twist angle) shows a pathway to strongly correlated phenomena while the stacking order and proximity effect is a way to induce key properties in 2D materials. How can we use van der Waals heterostructures to induce and study unconventional SC? In this talk, I will show how to combine scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy with mechanically assembled van der Waals heterostructures. In particular, I will show how proximitizing an s-wave superconductor to a 2D topological insulator induces 1D topological superconductivity at the QSH edge of the 2D topological insulator, a potential venue for the creation of Majorana bound states.