  We report a unique experimental approach to create topological
superconductors by inducing superconductivity into epitaxial metallic thin film
with strong spin-orbit coupling. Utilizing molecular beam epitaxy technique
under ultra-high vacuum condition, we are able to achieve (111) oriented single
phase of gold (Au) thin film grown on a well-oriented vanadium (V) s-wave
superconductor film with clean interface. We obtained atomically smooth Au thin
films with thicknesses even down to below a nanometer showing near-ideal
surface quality. The as-grown V/Au bilayer heterostructure exhibits
superconducting transition at around 4 K. Clear Josephson tunneling and Andreev
reflection are observed in S-I-S tunnel junctions fabricated from the epitaxial
bi-layers. The barrier thickness dependent tunneling and the associated
subharmonic gap structures (SGS) confirmed the induced superconductivity in Au
(111), paving the way for engineering thin film heterostructure based p-wave
superconductors and nano devices for Majorana fermion.
