Shiba impurity bound states as a probe of topological superconductivity and Fermion parity changing quantum phase transitions

Abstract

Spin-orbit coupled superconductors are potentially interesting candidates for realizing topological and potentially non-Abelian states with Majorana Fermions. We argue that time-reversal broken spin-orbit coupled superconductors generically can be characterized as having sub-gap states that are bound to localized non-magnetic impurities. Such bound states, which are referred to as Shiba states, can be detected as sharp resonances in the tunneling spectrum of the spin-orbit coupled superconductors. The Shiba state resonance can be tuned using a gate-voltage or a magnetic field from being at the edge of the gap at zero magnetic fields to crossing zero energy when the Zeeman splitting is tuned into the topological superconducting regime. The zero-crossing signifies a Fermion parity changing first order quantum phase transition, which is characterized by a Pfaffian topological invariant. These zero-crossings of the impurity level can be used to locally characterize the topological superconducting state from tunneling experiments.

5 pages; 3 figures: minor reference updates

References in corpus (18)

• Non-Abelian Anyons and Topological Quantum Computation
• Superconducting proximity effect and Majorana fermions at the surface of a topological insulator
• Signatures of Majorana fermions in hybrid superconductor-semiconductor nanowire devices
• Majorana Fermions and a Topological Phase Transition in Semiconductor-Superconductor Heterostructures
• Classification of topological insulators and superconductors in three spatial dimensions
• Evidence of Majorana fermions in an Al - InAs nanowire topological superconductor
• Observation of Majorana Fermions in a Nb-InSb Nanowire-Nb Hybrid Quantum Device
• Observation of the fractional ac Josephson effect: the signature of Majorana particles
• Non-Abelian Topological Order in S-Wave Superfluids of Ultracold Fermionic Atoms
• Non-Abelian quantum order in spin-orbit-coupled semiconductors: The search for topological Majorana particles in solid state systems
• $p_x+i{p}_y$ superfluid from s-wave interactions of fermionic cold atoms
• Zero-bias anomaly in a nanowire quantum dot coupled to superconductors
• Multichannel Generalization of Kitaev's Majorana End States and a Practical Route to Realize Them in Thin Films
• Josephson and Andreev transport through quantum dots
• Search for Majorana fermions in multiband semiconducting nanowires
• Fractional ac Josephson effect in unconventional superconductors
• Universal impurity-induced bound state in topological superfluids
• Impurity-induced bound states in superconductors with topological order

Cited by in corpus (62)

• Physical mechanisms for zero-bias conductance peaks in Majorana nanowires
• Majorana bound states in non-homogeneous semiconductor nanowires
• Two terminal charge tunneling: Disentangling Majorana zero modes from partially separated Andreev bound states in semiconductor-superconductor heterostructures
• SNS junctions in nanowires with spin-orbit coupling: role of confinement and helicity on the sub-gap spectrum
• Many-body characterization of topological superconductivity: The Richardson-Gaudin-Kitaev chain
• Three-terminal nonlocal conductance in Majorana nanowires: Distinguishing topological and trivial in realistic systems with disorder and inhomogeneous potential
• Parity independence of the zero-bias conductance peak in a nanowire based topological superconductor-quantum dot hybrid device
• Majorana wavefunction oscillations, fermion parity switches, and disorder in Kitaev chains
• Topological phases, edge modes, and the Hofstadter butterfly in coupled Su-Schrieffer-Heeger systems
• Charge impurity effects in hybrid Majorana nanowires
• Majorana bound states in open quasi-1D and 2D systems with transverse Rashba coupling
• Quench dynamics and parity blocking in Majorana wires
• Impurity-induced bound states in superconductors with spin-orbit coupling
• Flat Majorana bands in 2-d lattices with inhomogeneous magnetic fields: topology and stability
• A proposal to probe quantum non-locality of Majorana fermions in tunneling experiments
• Characterizing unconventional superconductors from the spin structure of impurity-induced bound states
• Existence of zero-energy impurity states in different classes of topological insulators and superconductors and their relation to topological phase transitions
• Kondo Signatures of a Quantum Magnetic Impurity in Topological Superconductors
• Quench dynamics of fermion-parity switches in a Josephson junction
• Topological polarons, quasiparticle invariants and their detection in 1D symmetry-protected phases
• Shiba chains of scalar impurities on unconventional superconductors
• Quasiclassical Eilenberger theory of the topological proximity effect in a superconducting nanowire
• Impurity bound states in fully gapped $d$-wave superconductors with subdominant order parameters
• Impurity-induced states in superconducting heterostructures
• Rise and fall of Yu-Shiba-Rusinov bound-states in charge conserving $s$-wave one-dimensional superconductors
• Impact of topology on the impurity effects in extended $s$-wave superconductors with spin-orbit coupling
• Formation of Majorana fermions in finite-size graphene strips
• Engineering anomalous Floquet Majorana modes and their time evolution in helical Shiba chain
• Probing Majorana-like states in quantum dots and quantum rings
• Connection between zero-energy Yu-Shiba-Rusinov states and 0-$\pi$ transitions in magnetic Josephson junctions
• Majorana fermions in finite-size strips with in-plane magnetic fields
• Self-consistent study of Abelian and non-Abelian order in a two-dimensional topological superconductor
• Effect of impurities and disorder on the braiding dynamics of Majorana zero modes
• Point-Gap Bound States in Non-Hermitian Systems
• Magnetic-impurity resonance states for different pairing symmetries in twisted bilayer graphene
• Compressibility as a probe of quantum phase transitions in topological superconductors
• Tailoring phase transition from topological superconductor to trivial superconductor induced by magnetic textures of a spin-chain on a $p$-wave superconductor
• Symmetry-protected topological invariant and Majorana impurity states in time-reversal-invariant superconductors
• Quantum probing topological phase transitions by non-Markovianity
• Random matrix theory for the robustness, quantization, and end-to-end correlation of zero-bias conductance peaks in a class D ensemble
• Mobile magnetic impurities in a Fermi superfluid: a route to designer molecules
• Probing zero-modes of defect in Kitaev quantum wire
• Resolving different pairing states in Weyl superconductors through the single-particle spectrum
• Impurity-induced resonant states in topological nodal-line semimetals
• Anomalous Shiba states in topological iron-based superconductors
• Fermion-parity switches of the ground state of Majorana billiards
• Tunable correlation effects of magnetic impurities by the cubic Rashba spin-orbit couplings
• Robust Zero Energy Bound States Localized at Magnetic Impurities in Iron-based Superconductors
• Topological s-wave pairing superconductivity with spatial inhomogeneity: Mid-gap-state appearance and robustness of superconductivity
• Resonance states near a quantum magnetic impurity in single-layer FeSe superconductors with $d$-wave symmetry
• Quantum Phase Transitions in Proximitized Josephson Junctions
• Charge-impurity-induced Majorana fermions in topological superconductors
• Majorana fermions in semiconductor nanostructures with two wires connected through ring
• Spin relaxation, Josephson effect and Yu-Shiba-Rusinov states in superconducting bilayer graphene
• Visualizing Pairing Symmetry in Nematic Superconductors using spin-polarized spectroscopy of magnetic impurities
• An oscillating Casimir potential between two impurities in a spin-orbit coupled Bose-Einstein condensate
• Probing Sign-Changing Order Parameters via Impurity States in unconventional superconductors: Implications for La${}_3$Ni${}_2$O${}_7$ Superconductors with interlayer pairing
• Sensing the binding and unbinding of anyons at impurities
• Impurity-induced Mott ring states and Mott zeros ring states in the Hubbard operator formalism
• Chiral $p-$wave superconductivity in Pb${}_{1-x}$Sn${}_x$Te: signatures from bound-state spectra and wavefunctions
• Layer-Resolved Impurity States Reveal Competing Pairing Mechanisms in Trilayer Nickelate Superconductor La${}_4$Ni${}_3$O${}_{10}$
• Symmetry-protected topological wire in a topological vacuum