Majorana Fermions and Exotic Surface Andreev Bound States in Topological Superconductors: Application to CuₓBi₂Se₃

The recently discovered superconductor CuₓBi₂Se₃ is a candidate for three-dimensional time-reversal-invariant topological superconductors, which are predicted to have robust surface Andreev bound states hosting massless Majorana fermions. In this work, we analytically and numerically find the linear...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Fu, Liang, Hsieh, Timothy Hwa-wei
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
Format: Article
Language:en_US
Published: American Physical Society 2012
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/70908
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8803-1017
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8187-7266
_version_ 1811077593984663552
author Fu, Liang
Hsieh, Timothy Hwa-wei
author2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
author_facet Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
Fu, Liang
Hsieh, Timothy Hwa-wei
author_sort Fu, Liang
collection MIT
description The recently discovered superconductor CuₓBi₂Se₃ is a candidate for three-dimensional time-reversal-invariant topological superconductors, which are predicted to have robust surface Andreev bound states hosting massless Majorana fermions. In this work, we analytically and numerically find the linearly dispersing Majorana fermions at k=0, which smoothly evolve into a new branch of gapless surface Andreev bound states near the Fermi momentum. The latter is a new type of Andreev bound states resulting from both the nontrivial band structure and the odd-parity pairing symmetry. The tunneling spectra of these surface Andreev bound states agree well with a recent point-contact spectroscopy experiment [ S. Sasaki et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 107 217001 (2011)] and yield additional predictions for low temperature tunneling and photoemission experiments.
first_indexed 2024-09-23T10:45:29Z
format Article
id mit-1721.1/70908
institution Massachusetts Institute of Technology
language en_US
last_indexed 2024-09-23T10:45:29Z
publishDate 2012
publisher American Physical Society
record_format dspace
spelling mit-1721.1/709082022-09-30T22:47:06Z Majorana Fermions and Exotic Surface Andreev Bound States in Topological Superconductors: Application to CuₓBi₂Se₃ Fu, Liang Hsieh, Timothy Hwa-wei Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics Fu, Liang Fu, Liang Hsieh, Timothy Hwa-wei The recently discovered superconductor CuₓBi₂Se₃ is a candidate for three-dimensional time-reversal-invariant topological superconductors, which are predicted to have robust surface Andreev bound states hosting massless Majorana fermions. In this work, we analytically and numerically find the linearly dispersing Majorana fermions at k=0, which smoothly evolve into a new branch of gapless surface Andreev bound states near the Fermi momentum. The latter is a new type of Andreev bound states resulting from both the nontrivial band structure and the odd-parity pairing symmetry. The tunneling spectra of these surface Andreev bound states agree well with a recent point-contact spectroscopy experiment [ S. Sasaki et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 107 217001 (2011)] and yield additional predictions for low temperature tunneling and photoemission experiments. United States. Dept. of Energy (Grant No. DE-FG02-05ER41360) National Science Foundation (U.S.) (fellowship grant No. 0645960) Harvard University (Society of Fellows) Chinese Academy of Sciences (Institute of Physics) Tsinghua University (Beijing, China) (Institute of Advanced Study) 2012-05-22T19:58:12Z 2012-05-22T19:58:12Z 2012-03 2011-09 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0031-9007 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/70908 Hsieh, Timothy, and Liang Fu. “Majorana Fermions and Exotic Surface Andreev Bound States in Topological Superconductors: Application to CuₓBi₂Se₃.” Physical Review Letters 108.10 (2012):[5 pages].© 2012 American Physical Society. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8803-1017 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8187-7266 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.107005 Physical Review Letters Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf American Physical Society APS
spellingShingle Fu, Liang
Hsieh, Timothy Hwa-wei
Majorana Fermions and Exotic Surface Andreev Bound States in Topological Superconductors: Application to CuₓBi₂Se₃
title Majorana Fermions and Exotic Surface Andreev Bound States in Topological Superconductors: Application to CuₓBi₂Se₃
title_full Majorana Fermions and Exotic Surface Andreev Bound States in Topological Superconductors: Application to CuₓBi₂Se₃
title_fullStr Majorana Fermions and Exotic Surface Andreev Bound States in Topological Superconductors: Application to CuₓBi₂Se₃
title_full_unstemmed Majorana Fermions and Exotic Surface Andreev Bound States in Topological Superconductors: Application to CuₓBi₂Se₃
title_short Majorana Fermions and Exotic Surface Andreev Bound States in Topological Superconductors: Application to CuₓBi₂Se₃
title_sort majorana fermions and exotic surface andreev bound states in topological superconductors application to cuₓbi₂se₃
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/70908
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8803-1017
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8187-7266
work_keys_str_mv AT fuliang majoranafermionsandexoticsurfaceandreevboundstatesintopologicalsuperconductorsapplicationtocuxbi2se3
AT hsiehtimothyhwawei majoranafermionsandexoticsurfaceandreevboundstatesintopologicalsuperconductorsapplicationtocuxbi2se3