First principle study of heterostructure of BaBi₃-stanene for topological superconductor applications

We have studied the heterostructure of BaBi₃ (superconductor) and stanene (topological insulator) with the aim of inducing topological superconductivity in stanene, due to proximity with superconductor BaBi₃. The density functional theory calculations have been done for 2D structure of BaBi₃ as well as for monolayer of stanene, separately. We find that compared to bulk BaBi₃, the 2D bandstructure has contributions coming from both Ba and Bi atoms, unlike bulk where only Bi–p states are contributing to the bandstructure. Surface reconstruction of surface and sub-surface layer of 2D BaBi₃ is also evident. The bandstructure of heterostructure of BaBi₃−stanene is expected to bring out explicit features of topological superconductivity and indicating the presence of Majorana fermions.