Odd-parity superconductors with two-component order parameters: Nematic and chiral, full gap, and Majorana node

Motivated by the recent experiment indicating that superconductivity in the doped topological insulator CuxBi2Se3 has an odd-parity pairing symmetry with rotational symmetry breaking, we study the general class of odd-parity superconductors with two-component order parameters in trigonal and hexagon...

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Veröffentlicht in:Physical review. B 2016-11, Vol.94 (18), Article 180504
Hauptverfasser: Venderbos, Jörn W. F., Kozii, Vladyslav, Fu, Liang
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Sprache:eng
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Zusammenfassung:Motivated by the recent experiment indicating that superconductivity in the doped topological insulator CuxBi2Se3 has an odd-parity pairing symmetry with rotational symmetry breaking, we study the general class of odd-parity superconductors with two-component order parameters in trigonal and hexagonal crystal systems. In the presence of strong spin-orbit interaction, we find two possible superconducting phases below Tc, a time-reversal-breaking (i.e., chiral) phase and an anisotropic (i.e., nematic) phase, and determine their relative energetics from the gap function in momentum space. The nematic superconductor generally has a full quasiparticle gap, whereas the chiral superconductor with a three-dimensional (3D) Fermi surface has point nodes with lifted spin degeneracy, resulting in itinerant Majorana fermions in the bulk and topological Majorana arcs on the surface.
ISSN:2469-9950
2469-9969
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevB.94.180504