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Giwa R, Hosur P. Superconductor Vortex Spectrum Including Fermi Arc States in Time-Reversal Symmetric Weyl Semimetals. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2023; 130:156402. [PMID: 37115867 DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.130.156402] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/28/2022] [Revised: 12/21/2022] [Accepted: 03/27/2023] [Indexed: 06/19/2023]
Abstract
Using semiclassics to surmount the hurdle of bulk-surface inseparability, we derive the superconductor vortex spectrum in nonmagnetic Weyl semimetals and show that it stems from the Berry phase of orbits made of Fermi arcs on opposite surfaces and bulk chiral modes. Tilting the vortex transmutes it between bosonic, fermionic, and supersymmetric, produces periodic peaks in the density of states that signify novel nonlocal Majorana modes, and yields a thickness-independent spectrum at magic "magic angles." We propose (Nb,Ta)P as candidate materials and tunneling spectroscopy as the ideal experiment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rauf Giwa
- University of Houston, Houston, Texas 77204, USA
| | - Pavan Hosur
- University of Houston, Houston, Texas 77204, USA
- Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston, Houston, Texas 77204, USA
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Hu LH, Wu X, Liu CX, Zhang RX. Competing Vortex Topologies in Iron-Based Superconductors. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2022; 129:277001. [PMID: 36638298 DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.129.277001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/03/2021] [Accepted: 12/07/2022] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
In this Letter, we establish a new theoretical paradigm for vortex Majorana physics in the recently discovered topological iron-based superconductors (TFeSCs). While TFeSCs are widely accepted as an exemplar of topological insulators (TIs) with intrinsic s-wave superconductivity, our theory implies that such a common belief could be oversimplified. Our main finding is that the normal-state bulk Dirac nodes, usually ignored in TI-based vortex Majorana theories for TFeSCs, will play a key role of determining the vortex state topology. In particular, the interplay between TI and Dirac nodal bands will lead to multiple competing topological phases for a superconducting vortex line in TFeSCs, including an unprecedented hybrid topological vortex state that carries both Majorana bound states and a gapless dispersion. Remarkably, this exotic hybrid vortex phase generally exists in the vortex phase diagram for our minimal model for TFeSCs and is directly relevant to TFeSC candidates such as LiFeAs. When the fourfold rotation symmetry is broken by vortex-line tilting or curving, the hybrid vortex gets topologically trivialized and becomes Majorana free, which could explain the puzzle of ubiquitous trivial vortices observed in LiFeAs. The origin of the Majorana signal in other TFeSC candidates such as FeTe_{x}Se_{1-x} and CaKFe_{4}As_{4} is also interpreted within our theory framework. Our theory sheds new light on theoretically understanding and experimentally engineering Majorana physics in high-temperature iron-based systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lun-Hui Hu
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, USA
- Institute for Advanced Materials and Manufacturing, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37920, USA
- Department of Physics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA
| | - Xianxin Wu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Theoretical Physics, Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
- Max-Planck-Institut für Festkörperforschung, Heisenbergstrasse 1, D-70569 Stuttgart, Germany
| | - Chao-Xing Liu
- Department of Physics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA
| | - Rui-Xing Zhang
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, USA
- Institute for Advanced Materials and Manufacturing, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37920, USA
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, USA
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Li C, Luo XJ, Chen L, Liu DE, Zhang FC, Liu X. Controllable majorana vortex states in iron-based superconducting nanowires. Natl Sci Rev 2022; 9:nwac095. [PMID: 36196249 PMCID: PMC9521342 DOI: 10.1093/nsr/nwac095] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/02/2021] [Revised: 04/15/2022] [Accepted: 04/15/2022] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
To reveal the non-Abelian braiding statistics of Majorana zero modes (MZMs), it is crucial to design a Majorana platform, in which MZMs can be easily manipulated in a broad topological nontrivial parameter space. This is also an essential step to confirm their existence. In this study, we propose an iron-based superconducting nanowire system with Majorana vortex states to satisfy desirable conditions. This system has a radius-induced topological phase transition, giving a lower bound for the nanowire radius. In the topological phase, the iron-based superconducting nanowires have only one pair of MZMs over a wide range of radii, chemical potential and external magnetic fields. The wave function of MZMs has a sizable distribution at the side edge of the nanowires. This property enables the control of the interaction of MZMs in neighboring vortex nanowires and paves the way for Majorana fusion and braiding.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chuang Li
- School of Physics and Institute for Quantum Science and Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China
- Wuhan National High Magnetic Field Center and Hubei Key Laboratory of Gravitation and Quantum Physics, Wuhan, 430074, China
| | - Xun-Jiang Luo
- School of Physics and Institute for Quantum Science and Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China
- Wuhan National High Magnetic Field Center and Hubei Key Laboratory of Gravitation and Quantum Physics, Wuhan, 430074, China
| | - Li Chen
- School of Physics and Institute for Quantum Science and Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China
- Wuhan National High Magnetic Field Center and Hubei Key Laboratory of Gravitation and Quantum Physics, Wuhan, 430074, China
| | - Dong E Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Low Dimensional Quantum Physics, Department of Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China
| | - Fu-Chun Zhang
- Kavli Institute for Theoretical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
| | - Xin Liu
- School of Physics and Institute for Quantum Science and Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China
- Wuhan National High Magnetic Field Center and Hubei Key Laboratory of Gravitation and Quantum Physics, Wuhan, 430074, China
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Abstract
Emergent electronic phenomena in iron-based superconductors have been at the forefront of condensed matter physics for more than a decade. Much has been learned about the origins and intertwined roles of ordered phases, including nematicity, magnetism, and superconductivity, in this fascinating class of materials. In recent years, focus has been centered on the peculiar and highly unusual properties of FeSe and its close cousins. This family of materials has attracted considerable attention due to the discovery of unexpected superconducting gap structures, a wide range of superconducting critical temperatures, and evidence for nontrivial band topology, including associated spin-helical surface states and vortex-induced Majorana bound states. Here, we review superconductivity in iron chalcogenide superconductors, including bulk FeSe, doped bulk FeSe, FeTe1−xSex, intercalated FeSe materials, and monolayer FeSe and FeTe1−xSex on SrTiO3. We focus on the superconducting properties, including a survey of the relevant experimental studies, and a discussion of the different proposed theoretical pairing scenarios. In the last part of the paper, we review the growing recent evidence for nontrivial topological effects in FeSe-related materials, focusing again on interesting implications for superconductivity.
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Ghorashi SAA, Hughes TL, Rossi E. Vortex and Surface Phase Transitions in Superconducting Higher-order Topological Insulators. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2020; 125:037001. [PMID: 32745388 DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.125.037001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/18/2019] [Accepted: 06/30/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Topological insulators, having intrinsic or proximity-coupled s-wave superconductivity, host Majorana zero modes (MZMs) at the ends of vortex lines. The MZMs survive up to a critical doping of the TI at which there is a vortex phase transition that eliminates the MZMs. In this work, we show that the phenomenology in higher-order topological insulators (HOTIs) can be qualitatively distinct. In particular, we find two distinct features. (i) We find that vortices placed on the gapped (side) surfaces of the HOTI, exhibit a pair of phase transitions as a function of doping. The first transition is a surface phase transition after which MZMs appear. The second transition is the well-known vortex phase transition. We find that the surface transition appears because of the competition between the superconducting gap and the local T-breaking gap on the surface. (ii) We present numerical evidence that shows strong variation of the critical doping for the vortex phase transition as the center of the vortex is moved toward or away from the hinges of the sample. We believe our work provides new phenomenology that can help identify HOTIs, as well as illustrating a promising platform for the realization of MZMs.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Taylor L Hughes
- Department of Physics and Institute for Condensed Matter Theory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Illinois 61801, USA
| | - Enrico Rossi
- Department of Physics, William & Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia 23187, USA
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Yan Z, Wu Z, Huang W. Vortex End Majorana Zero Modes in Superconducting Dirac and Weyl Semimetals. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2020; 124:257001. [PMID: 32639774 DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.124.257001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/05/2019] [Revised: 06/01/2020] [Accepted: 06/02/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Time-reversal invariant Dirac and Weyl semimetals in three dimensions (3D) can host open Fermi arcs and spin-momentum locking Fermi loops on the surfaces. We find that when they become superconducting with s-wave pairing and the doping is lower than a critical level, straight π-flux vortex lines terminating at surfaces with Fermi arcs or spin-momentum locking Fermi loops can realize 1D topological superconductivity and harbor Majorana zero modes at their ends. Remarkably, we find that the vortex-generation-associated Zeeman field can open (when the surfaces have only Fermi arcs) or enhance the topological gap protecting Majorana zero modes, which is contrary to the situation in superconducting topological insulators. By studying the tilting effect of bulk Dirac and Weyl cones, we further find that type-I Dirac and Weyl semimetals in general have a much broader topological regime than type-II ones. Our findings build up a connection between time-reversal invariant Dirac and Weyl semimetals and Majorana zero modes in vortices.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhongbo Yan
- School of Physics, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China
| | - Zhigang Wu
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Quantum Science and Engineering, Shenzhen Institute for Quantum Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, Guangdong, China
| | - Wen Huang
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Quantum Science and Engineering, Shenzhen Institute for Quantum Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, Guangdong, China
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Huang B, Bai Y, Xu N. Nodal line topological superfluid and multiply protected Majorana Fermi arc in a three-dimensional time-reversal-invariant superfluid model. JOURNAL OF PHYSICS. CONDENSED MATTER : AN INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS JOURNAL 2020; 32:195502. [PMID: 31940602 DOI: 10.1088/1361-648x/ab6bea] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
We theoretically study a time-reversal-invariant three-dimensional superfluid model by stacking in z direction identical bilayer models with intralayer spin-orbit coupling and contrary Zeeman energy splitting for different layers, which has been suggested recently to realize two-dimensional time-reversal-invariant topological superfluid. We find that this model shows two kinds of topologically nontrivial phases: gapless phases with nodal lines in pairs protected by chiral symmetry and a gapped phase, both of which support a time-reversal-invariant Majorana Fermi arc (MFA) on the yz and xz side surface. These MFA abide by time-reversal and particle-hole symmetries and are topologically protected by the winding numbers in mirror subspaces and the Z 2 numbers of two-dimensional DIII class topological superfluid, which are different from MFA in the time-reversal broken Weyl superfluid protected by nonzero Chern numbers. This important observation means that MFA in our model represents a new type of topological state not explored previously. The Zeeman field configuration in our model is relevant to the antiferromagnetic topological insulator MnBi2Te4, thus our work stimulates the further studies on superconducting effects in the realistic antiferromagnetic topological insulator.
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Affiliation(s)
- Beibing Huang
- Department of Physics, Yancheng Institute of Technology, Yancheng 224051, People's Republic of China
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Wilfong B, Zhou X, Zheng H, Babra N, Brown CM, Lynn JW, Taddei KM, Paglione J, Rodriguez EE. Long-range magnetic order in hydroxide-layer-doped (Li 1-x-y Fe x Mn y OD)FeSe. PHYSICAL REVIEW MATERIALS 2020; 4:10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.4.034803. [PMID: 34142003 PMCID: PMC8207456 DOI: 10.1103/physrevmaterials.4.034803] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
The (Li1-x Fe x OH)FeSe superconductor has been suspected of exhibiting long-range magnetic ordering due to Fe substitution in the LiOH layer. However, no direct observation such as magnetic reflection from neutron diffraction has been reported. Here, we use a chemical design strategy to manipulate the doping level of transition metals in the LiOH layer to tune the magnetic properties of the (Li1-x-y Fe x Mn y OD)FeSe system. We find Mn doping exclusively replaces Li in the hydroxide layer resulting in enhanced magnetization in the (Li0.876Fe0.062Mn0.062OD)FeSe superconductor without significantly altering the superconducting behavior as resolved by magnetic susceptibility and electrical/thermal transport measurements. As a result, long-range magnetic ordering was observed below 12 K with neutron diffraction measurements. This work has implications for the design of magnetic superconductors for the fundamental understanding of superconductivity and magnetism in the iron chalcogenide system as well as exploitation as functional materials for next-generation devices.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brandon Wilfong
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA
- Maryland Quantum Materials Center, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA
| | - Xiuquan Zhou
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA
- Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, Illinois 60439, USA
| | - Huafei Zheng
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA
| | - Navneeth Babra
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA
| | - Craig M. Brown
- NIST Center for Neutron Research, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899, USA
| | - Jeffrey W. Lynn
- NIST Center for Neutron Research, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899, USA
| | - Keith M. Taddei
- Diffraction Group, Neutron Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, USA
| | - Johnpierre Paglione
- Maryland Quantum Materials Center, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA
- Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA
| | - Efrain E. Rodriguez
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA
- Maryland Quantum Materials Center, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA
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