Coexistence of Superconductivity and Antiferromagnetism in Epitaxial Topological Magnet MnBi₂Te₄ Films

The interface of two materials has been demonstrated to give rise to completely unexpected emergent phenomena, such as interface-induced superconductivity. Moreover, when one of the two materials has a strong spin-orbit coupling, this interface-induced superconductivity may host the topological superconducting (TSC) phase. In this work, we employ molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) to grow a series of heterostructures formed by stacking together two non-superconducting antiferromagnetic materials, an intrinsic antiferromagnetic topological insulator MnBi₂Te₄ and an antiferromagnetic iron chalcogenide (FeTe). Our electrical transport measurements reveal emergent interface-induced superconductivity in these heterostructures. By performing scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy measurements, we observe a proximity-induced superconducting gap on the top surface of the MnBi₂Te₄ layer, confirming the interaction between superconductivity and antiferromagnetism in the MnBi₂Te₄ layer. Our findings will advance the fundamental inquiries into the TSC in hybrid devices and provide a promising platform for the exploration of chiral Majorana physics in MnBi₂Te₄-based heterostructures.