Topological superconductivity in monolayer T_d−MoTe₂

Topological superconductivity has attracted significant attention due to its potential applications in quantum computation, but its experimental realization remains challenging. Recently, monolayer T_d−MoTe₂ was observed to exhibit gate tunable superconductivity, and its in-plane upper critical field exceeds the Pauli limit. Here, we show that an in-plane magnetic field beyond the Pauli limit can drive the superconducting monolayer T_d−MoTe₂ into a topological superconductor. The topological superconductivity arises from the interplay between the in-plane Zeeman coupling and the unique Ising plus in-plane spin-orbit coupling (SOC) in the monolayer T_d−MoTe₂. The Ising plus in-plane SOC plays the essential role to enable the effective p_x + ip_y pairing. As the essential Ising plus in-plane SOC in the monolayer T_d−MoTe₂ is generated by an in-plane polar field, our proposal demonstrates that applying an in-plane magnetic field to a gate tunable 2D superconductor with an in-plane polar axis is a feasible way to realize topological superconductivity.