Start as a top student and move towards the stars and the sea

Qi Wan is a person who doesn't know how to hide her emotions. Ning Chen saw Qi Wan's expression and knew that Qi Wan was probably really relieved about it.

…

In the following time, Ning Chen and Qi Wan completed all measurements of the surface states of topological insulators, as well as analysis and processing of experimental data.

Ning Chen does not plan to participate in the subsequent writing of the paper.

After all, Ning Chen was just here for an internship. Taking this opportunity to quickly accumulate subject experience and break through the bottleneck of materials science was Ning Chen's biggest goal.

As for the results, as long as Ning Chen didn't play a particularly big role in the research process, Ning Chen wouldn't particularly care.

Before starting the new topic, Ning Chen and Qi Wan first studied the theoretical ideas proposed by Ren Mingshan in detail.

Ning Chen had to admit that Ren Mingshan did have very strong professional abilities in the field of theoretical physics.

The theoretical ideas of the entire topic are very detailed. While having a certain degree of novelty, it also provides a variety of experimental plans that can be tried.

What Ning Chen and Qi Wan need to do is to conduct experiments in this general direction and grasp some experimental details on their own.

Ning Chen felt that perhaps this was the work that a corresponding author really needed to do.

After Ren Mingshan officially completed the application for the project, Ning Chen and Qi Wan started the experiment under the guidance of Ren Mingshan.

"You two must be very familiar with the topological superconductor that we first explored. Because you also studied this kind of material in the previous topic."

As he spoke, Ren Mingshan found out the microstructure of this substance on the computer.

Seeing the structure of this material, Qi Wan asked in surprise:

"Teacher Ren, isn't this Bi2Se3?"

This is a topological insulator and one of the substances they explored in their previous project.

Ning Chen was confused at first, but soon understood the reason.

Many topological insulators, after doping with some metal elements, will show superconductivity at low temperatures.

There is actually a very close connection between topological insulators and topological superconductors.

Ren Mingshan's next words were also in line with Ning Chen's guess.

"As you all know, Bi2Se3 is a topological insulator. But if a small amount of copper is added to it, the material will show superconducting electrical properties at a temperature of 3.8K. What we have to do next is to synthesize it first This topological superconductor, and then study its topological superconductivity to see if we can find evidence for the existence of Majorana fermions."

Ning Chen has very rich research experience in the field of superconductivity. In this regard, even Mingshan cannot compare with Ning Chen.

After determining the experimental arrangements, everyone officially started research on this topic.

Ning Chen could tell that Ren Mingshan really attached great importance to this project and often participated in it himself. Unlike Qi Wan's previous project, Ren Mingshan would only ask about it every once in a while.

After a phase of work, the project team successfully synthesized this topological superconductor and verified the topological superconductivity of this superconductor.

Of course, these tasks have been done by predecessors and are not the most critical steps in the entire experiment. They are only the prerequisite work for the experiment.

The next data analysis work is the focus of the project.

Ren Mingshan, Ning Chen, Qi Wan and others searched for traces and evidence of the existence of Majorana fermions in various measurement data.

"Ning Chen, Qi Wan, you guys, look, the zero-voltage conductance peak here may be caused by Majorana fermions."

Ren Mingshan pointed to the peaks at zero voltage in the point contact spectrum to express his views.

In the point contact spectrum of this topological superconductor, almost every spectrum has a large or small conductance peak at zero voltage.

Ning Chen also knew that these might indeed be evidence of the existence of Majorana fermions, but they were only possible.

Because this is not the only possible reason for this phenomenon.

After thinking about it, Ning Chen decided to speak out his thoughts.

"Teacher Ren, I think these zero-voltage conductance peaks are not significant enough, and the idea that they are caused by Majorana fermions is not sufficiently convincing. Moreover, the cause of these zero-voltage conductance peaks is not There is only one, and we need to conduct more detailed experiments to explore this."

Qi Wan was a little surprised that Ning Chen dared to put forward different opinions like Ren Mingshan.

If it were Qi Wan, I'm afraid Ning Chen would have to lend him the courage to dare to talk to Ren Mingshan like this.

After hearing Ning Chen's point of view, Ren Mingshan was not angry. Instead, he nodded and said:

"Ning Chen, you are right. We do need to create more significant zero-voltage conductivity peaks. In addition, we also need to exclude in turn whether these zero-voltage conductance peaks are caused by Andreev reflection or heat reflection. , magnetic scattering, non-reflective tunneling and other reasons.”

Ren Mingshan also considered these things just now. After all, it is not that simple to discover the existence of Majorana fermions.

Ren Mingshan's attitude towards Ning Chen was not like treating a student, but more like treating a colleague in the academic field, even though Ning Chen was not older than many of Ren Mingshan's students.

Because in terms of scientific research ability, Ning Chen is already at the level of a university teacher or even a university professor.

…

After completing the initial data analysis, Ren Mingshan, Ning Chen, Qi Wan and others continued to conduct point contact spectrum measurement experiments on topological superconductors.

They hope to be able to measure a more obvious zero voltage peak and in turn eliminate the influence of other factors on the measurement process.

The experiment went smoothly overall. After the measurement method was improved, these zero-voltage peaks did become more obvious.

Many other factors have also been eliminated in turn. From these various signs, it seems that the existence of Majorana fermions may really be verified.

But both Ning Chen and Ren Mingshan know that the experimental phenomena they have made so far are not enough to prove that Majorana fermions cause the superconducting phenomenon of topological superconductors.

Under Ren Mingshan's suggestion, it was decided to measure other types of topological superconductors next.

On this day, Ren Mingshan did not come to the laboratory. While doing experiments, Qi Wan asked Ning Chen:

"Ning Chen, do you think we can really achieve any different results if we continue to do this?"

Regarding Qi Wan's questions, Ning Chen actually had similar doubts.

But at this time, Ning Chen couldn't think of any better way.

Thinking of this, Ning Chen replied:

"Continuing to measure other topological superconductors can enrich our experimental data, so that we can also hope to find evidence for the existence of Majorana fermions."

Qi Wan heard the meaning of Ning Chen's words and said helplessly:

"In other words, you don't have any particularly good ideas at the moment, right?"

Ning Chen smiled helplessly after hearing this. Even Ren Mingshan had no problem with his thinking, and he certainly couldn't solve it that easily.

While the two continued to conduct experiments, Ning Chen suddenly felt that there were some changes in his brain.

This feeling is like some information fragments in the brain being reorganized.

Ning Chen was no stranger to this feeling, and immediately understood the reason.

"Could it be that... my level of physics has suddenly been upgraded?"

Ning Chen confirmed his guess after taking a look at the personal information on the system interface.

These days, Ning Chen has indeed learned a lot in Ren Mingshan's laboratory, and his experience in physics is rapidly accumulated every day.

In order to sort out the information faster, Ning Chen had to temporarily put down the experiments in his hands and let his brain focus on sorting out the information.

"Ning Chen, what's wrong with you?"

Qi Wan saw something was wrong with Ning Chen's state and quickly asked nervously.

"It's nothing, I just felt a little dizzy suddenly. I should rest for a while and be fine."

Ning Chen is familiar with this state. It usually only takes Ning Chen more than ten minutes to completely consume the benefits brought by the upgrade from Lv1 to Lv2.

Qi Wan didn't know Ning Chen's actual situation, but she was still worried, and said anxiously:

"Ning Chen, do you need me to call 120? Or I can take you to the school hospital."

Ning Chen felt a little helpless at Qi Wan's nervous look and said quickly:

"No, no, I guess I didn't get enough rest last night. Why don't you boil some hot water for me to drink first? I feel a little thirsty."