Accessing topological superconductivity via a combined STM and renormalization group analysis

Abstract

The search for topological superconductors has recently become a key issue in condensed matter physics, because of their possible relevance to provide a platform for Majorana bound states, non-Abelian statistics, and fault-tolerant quantum computing. We propose a new scheme which links as directly as possible the experimental search to a material-based microscopic theory for topological superconductivity. For this, the analysis of scanning tunneling microscopy, which typically uses a phenomenological ansatz for the superconductor gap functions, is elevated to a theory, where a multi-orbital functional renormalization group analysis allows for an unbiased microscopic determination of the material-dependent pairing potentials. The combined approach is highlighted for paradigmatic hexagonal systems, such as doped graphene and water-intercalated sodium cobaltates, where lattice symmetry and electronic correlations yield a propensity for a chiral singlet topological superconductor state. We demonstrate that our microscopic material-oriented procedure is necessary to uniquely resolve a topological superconductor state.

phenomenological STM predictions and temperature dependence of conductance as well as references added (28 pages, 8 figures)

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Cited by in corpus (6)

• Josephson junction dynamics in the presence of $2\pi$- and $4\pi$-periodic supercurrents
• Unconventional superconductivity in a doped quantum spin Hall insulator
• Harmonic Fingerprint of Unconventional Superconductivity in Twisted Bilayer Graphene
• Topological Superconductivity in Two Dimensions with Mixed Chirality
• Ab initio materials physics and microscopic electrodynamics of media
• Competing instabilities of the extended Hubbard model on the triangular lattice: Truncated-unity functional renormalization group and application to moiré materials