Fractional AC Josephson effect in a topological insulator proximitized by a self-formed superconductor

A lateral Josephson junction in which the surface of a 3D topological insulator serves as the weak link should support topologically protected excitations related to Majorana fermions. The resulting $4\pi$-periodic current-phase relationship could be detected under high-frequency excitation by the suppression of odd Shapiro steps. Here, we demonstrate such devices through the self-formation of a Pd-Te superconducting layer from a telluride topological insulator, and observe suppressed first and third Shapiro steps. Other devices, including those where the Pd-Te layer is bolstered by an additional Al layer, show no suppression of Shapiro steps, a difference supported by simulations. Though we rule out the known trivial causes of suppressed Shapiro steps in our devices, we nevertheless argue that corroborating measurements and disorder-aware theoretical descriptions of these systems are needed before confidently claiming the observation of Majorana states.
Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, plus Supplemental Material