Self-organized topological state in the magnetic chain on the surface of a superconductor

Abstract

Electronic states associated with a chain of magnetic adatoms on the surface of an ordinary s- wave superconductor have been shown theoretically to form a one dimensional topological phase with unpaired Majorana fermions bound to its ends. In a simple 1D effective model the system exhibits an interesting self-organization property: the pitch of the spiral formed by the adatom magnetic moments tends to adjust itself so that electronically the chain remains in the topological phase whenever such a state is physically accessible. Here we examine the physics underlying this self-organization property in the framework of a more realistic 2D model of a superconducting surface coupled to a 1D chain of magnetic adatoms. Treating both the superconducting order and the magnetic moments selfconsistently we find that the system retains its self-organization property, even if the topological phase extends over a somewhat smaller portion of the phase diagram compared to the 1D model. We also study the effect of imperfections and find that, once established, the topological phase survives moderate levels of disorder.

9 pages with 8 figures

References in corpus (5)

• Signatures of Majorana fermions in hybrid superconductor-semiconductor nanowire devices
• Majorana Fermions and a Topological Phase Transition in Semiconductor-Superconductor Heterostructures
• Evidence of Majorana fermions in an Al - InAs nanowire topological superconductor
• Observation of Majorana Fermions in a Nb-InSb Nanowire-Nb Hybrid Quantum Device
• Anomalous modulation of a zero bias peak in a hybrid nanowire-superconductor device

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Strong localization of Majorana end states in chains of magnetic adatoms
• Topological Yu-Shiba-Rusinov chain from spin-orbit coupling
• Spiral magnetic order and topological superconductivity in a chain of magnetic adatoms on a two-dimensional superconductor
• Topological properties of helical Shiba chains with general impurity strength and hybridization
• Topological properties of chains of magnetic impurities on a superconducting substrate: Interplay between the Shiba band and ferromagnetic wire limits
• Odd-frequency pair in topological superconductivity of 1D magnetic chain
• Tuning topological superconductivity in helical Shiba chains by supercurrent
• Topological superconductivity at finite temperatures in proximitized magnetic nanowires
• Yu-Shiba-Rusinov States and Ordering of Magnetic Impurities Near the Boundary of a Superconducting Nanowire
• Magnetic order and transport in a spin-fermion model on a superlattice