CMSP Journal Club

Odd-Parity Topological Superconductors: Theory and Application to CuxBi2Se3

by Ms. Kusum Dhochak (TIFR)

Wednesday, August 10, 2011 from to (Asia/Kolkata)
at Colaba Campus ( A304 )
Description Topological superconductors have a full pairing gap in the bulk and gapless surface Andreev bound states. In this paper, we provide a sufficient criterion for realizing time-reversal-invariant topological superconductors in centrosymmetric superconductors with odd-parity pairing. We next study the pairing symmetry of the newly discovered superconductor CuxBi2Se3 within a two-orbital model, and find that a novel spin-triplet pairing with odd parity is favored by strong spin-orbit coupling. Based on our criterion, we propose that CuxBi2Se3 is a good candidate for a topological superconductor. We close by discussing experimental signatures of this new topological phase.

Reference: Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 097001 (2010)