Rare topological superconductor - LaPt3P

Superconductors are important materials that can conduct electricity without resistance when cooled below a certain temperature, making them highly desirable where energy consumption needs to be reduced. It show quantum properties which are very usefull for building computers that use quantum physics to store data and perform computing operations, and are specific. Much better than the best supercomputers on the task. As a result, leading high-tech companies such as Google, IBM, and Microsoft are in increasing demand for industrial-scale quantum computers using superconductors.

However, the elementary units of quantum computers (qubits) are extremely sensitive and lose their quantum properties due to electromagnetic fields, heat and collisions with air molecules. Protection from these can be achieved by making more resilient qubits using a special class of superconductors called topological superconductors which in addition to being superconductors also host protected metallic states on their boundaries or surfaces.

Research has resulted in the discovery of a new rare topological superconductor, LaPt3P. This discovery may be of huge importance to the future operations of quantum computers. Topological superconductors, such as LaPt3P, newly discovered through muon spin relaxation experiments and extensive theoretical analysis, are exceptionally rare and are of tremendous value to the future industry of quantum computing.

LaPt3P is a member of the platinum pnictide family of SCs APt3P (A = Ca, Sr and La) with a centrosymmetric primitive tetragonal structure. Its Tc = 1.1 K is significantly lower than its other two isostructural counterparts SrPt3P (Tc = 8.4 K) and CaPt3P (Tc = 6.6 K), which are conventional Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) SCs. Indications of the unconventional nature of the superconductivity in LaPt3P come from a number of experimental observations: a very low Tc, unsaturated resistivity up to room temperature and a weak specific heat jump at Tc. LaPt3P also has a different electronic structure from the other two members in the family because La contributes one extra valence electron. Theoretical analysis based on first principles Migdal-Eliashberg-theory15,16 found that the electron–phonon coupling in LaPt3P is the weakest in the family, which can explain its low Tc. The weak jump in the specific heat which is masked by a possible hyperfine contribution at low temperature. However, cannot be quantitatively captured.