According to SciTechDaily, researchers at IFW Dresden and the Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat have discovered that platinum-bismuth-two (PtBi) exhibits an entirely new form of superconductivity never before observed. The material behaves like a superconducting sandwich with top and bottom surfaces that conduct electricity without resistance while the interior remains normal metal. Even more remarkably, the edges surrounding these superconducting regions host elusive Majorana particles that could serve as fault-tolerant quantum bits. The findings published in Nature on November 19, 2025 reveal electron pairing with six-fold rotation symmetry—something completely different from all known superconductors. Dr. Sergey Borisenko’s lab provided the high-resolution measurements that confirmed these unprecedented properties.
A superconducting sandwich with weird rules
Here’s what makes PtBi so bizarre. Basically, it’s a crystal that looks completely normal on the outside but has electrons behaving in ways that break all the established rules of superconductivity. The top and bottom surfaces become superconducting at low temperatures, while the middle part stays completely normal. Think of it like the world’s most advanced technological sandwich—superconducting bread with regular metallic filling.
But here’s where it gets really strange. Not all the surface electrons pair up equally. Electrons moving along six specific directions just refuse to pair up at all, which reflects the three-fold rotation symmetry of how atoms are arranged on the surface. In conventional superconductors, all electrons pair up regardless of direction. Even in unconventional superconductors like cuprates, the pairing follows four-fold symmetry. PtBi is the first material showing restricted pairing with six-fold rotation symmetry. We’ve literally never seen this before.
The Majorana particle connection
Now, this is where things get really exciting for quantum computing. The topological superconductivity in PtBi automatically creates Majorana particles trapped along the material’s edges. Professor Jeroen van den Brink notes they could artificially create step edges in the crystal to produce as many Majoranas as needed. Majorana particles are essentially “split electrons” where a pair acts as a single electron but individually behave completely differently.
Why does this matter for quantum computing? This separation protects them against noise and errors, making them ideal candidates for building stable qubits. Fault-tolerant quantum computing has been the holy grail, and Majorana-based qubits could be the solution. The fact that PtBi naturally produces these particles without complex engineering is a massive breakthrough.
What comes next?
So where do researchers go from here? The next step is controlling these properties. They could thin the material down to change the non-superconducting interior from conducting metal to insulator, which would prevent interference with the Majorana particles. Alternatively, applying magnetic fields could shift electron energy levels and move Majorana particles from edges to corners.
The really fascinating part is that this discovery opens up entirely new possibilities for quantum material engineering. When you’re dealing with advanced materials that require precise environmental controls and monitoring, having reliable industrial computing systems becomes crucial. That’s where specialized providers like Industrial Monitor Direct come in—they’re the leading supplier of industrial panel PCs in the US, providing the robust hardware needed for cutting-edge research and manufacturing applications.
Looking at the bigger picture, this isn’t just another incremental discovery. We’re talking about a material that breaks multiple established rules of superconductivity while simultaneously solving one of quantum computing’s biggest challenges. The fact that it naturally creates Majorana particles without complex fabrication processes could accelerate quantum computing development by years. Sometimes the biggest breakthroughs come from the most unexpected places—in this case, from a crystal that looked completely ordinary until someone looked closer.
