September 15, 2026 -- A new theoretical and computational approach developed by a group at SISSA makes it possible to realistically and predictively simulate the “proximity effect”, a phenomenon in which a material can become superconducting simply by being placed next to another material that is intrinsically superconducting. This combination can give the two materials new and valuable properties, potentially opening up novel applications in quantum technologies.

The research, carried out in collaboration with the University of Trieste and the California Institute of Technology and published in Physical Review Research, has been selected as an Editors’ Suggestion by the journal. The tool developed in the study could contribute to the development of so-called topological superconductors. These materials are considered key to the realization of topological quantum computers, a new frontier in quantum computing that is attracting major scientific and economic interest. Such a technology would rely on storing and manipulating qubits, the fundamental units of information in quantum computers.

Realistically simulating superconducting interfaces is particularly challenging: the proximity effect can extend over hundreds of nanometres, making conventional computational techniques prohibitively demanding. The new method focuses computational resources on the most relevant region and efficiently combines approaches with different levels of complexity, avoiding the need to explicitly simulate very large structures. In the study, the method was first tested on simplified models and then applied to the interface between NbSe₂ and CrBr₃, with the results compared against experimental measurements. With this work, the research group provides a technique capable of describing and predicting the proximity effect more accurately, opening up new possibilities for designing and studying combinations of materials and their potential applications, whose properties are still largely unexplored.