Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless Transition in the Type-I Weyl Semimetal PtBi.

Symmetry breaking in topological matter has become in recent years a key concept in condensed matter physics to unveil novel electronic states. In this work, we predict that broken inversion symmetry and strong spin-orbit coupling in trigonal PtBi lead to a type-I Weyl semimetal band structure. Transport measurements show an unusually robust low dimensional superconductivity in thin exfoliated flakes up to 126 nm in thickness (with ∼ 275-400 mK), which constitutes the first report and study of unambiguous superconductivity in a type-I Weyl semimetal.

It's not just the defects - a curved crystal study of HO desorption from Ag.

We investigate water desorption from hydrophobic surfaces using two curved Ag single crystals centered at (111) and (001) apices. On these types of crystals the step density gradually increases along the curvature, allowing us to probe large ranges of surface structures in between the (001), (111) and (110) planes. Subtle differences in desorption of submonolayer water coverages point toward structure dependencies in water cluster nucleation.