Majorana-Weyl cones in ferroelectric superconductors

被引:3
作者
Yerzhakov, Hennadii [1 ]
Ilan, Roni [2 ]
Shimshoni, Efrat [1 ]
Ruhman, Jonathan [1 ]
机构
[1] Bar Ilan Univ, Dept Phys, IL-52900 Ramat Gan, Israel
[2] Tel Aviv Univ, Dept Phys, IL-69978 Tel Aviv, Israel
来源
PHYSICAL REVIEW RESEARCH | 2023年 / 5卷 / 01期
基金
以色列科学基金会;
关键词
VORTEX LINE; TRANSITION; SRTIO3; FIELD;
D O I
10.1103/PhysRevResearch.5.013178
中图分类号
O4 [物理学];
学科分类号
0702 ;
摘要
Topological superconductors are predicted to exhibit outstanding phenomena, including non-Abelian anyon excitations, heat-carrying edge states, and topological nodes in the Bogoliubov spectra. Nonetheless, and despite major experimental efforts, we are still lacking unambiguous signatures of such exotic phenomena. In this context, the recent discovery of coexisting superconductivity and ferroelectricity in lightly doped and ultraclean SrTiO3 opens new opportunities. Indeed, a promising route to engineer topological superconductivity is the combination of strong spin-orbit coupling and inversion-symmetry breaking. Here we study a three-dimensional parabolic band minimum with Rashba spin-orbit coupling, whose axis is aligned by the direction of a ferroelec-tric moment. We show that all of the aforementioned phenomena naturally emerge in this model when a magnetic field is applied. Above a critical Zeeman field, Majorana-Weyl cones emerge regardless of the electronic density. These cones manifest themselves as Majorana arc states appearing on surfaces and tetragonal domain walls. Rotating the magnetic field with respect to the direction of the ferroelectric moment tilts the Majorana-Weyl cones, eventually driving them into the type-II state with Bogoliubov Fermi surfaces. We then consider the consequences of the orbital magnetic field. First, the single vortex is found to be surrounded by a topological halo and is characterized by two Majorana zero modes: one localized in the vortex core and the other on the boundary of the topological halo. Based on a semiclassical argument we show that upon increasing the field above a critical value the halos overlap and eventually percolate through the system, causing a bulk topological transition that always precedes the normal state. Finally, we propose concrete experiments to test our predictions.
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页数:17
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