Majorana surface modes of nodal topological pairings in spin-$\frac{3}{2}$ semi-metals

Abstract

Multi-component electronic systems can appear in solid state systems with active orbital band structures. They exhibit richer structures of topological superconductivity beyond the conventional scenarios of spin singlet and triplet pairings in spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ systems. Examples include the half-Heusler compounds RPtBi series (R for a rare earth element), whose electronic structures are described by the effective Luttinger-Kohn model with spin-$\frac{3}{2}$ fermions exhibiting strong spin-orbit coupling and band conversion. Recent experiments provide evidence to unconventional superconductivity in the YPtBi material with nodal spin-septet pairing. We systematically study topological pairing structures in spin-$\frac{3}{2}$ systems with cubic group symmetries and calculate surface Majorana spectra, which exhibit both the zero energy flat band and the cubic dispersion. The signatures of these surface states in the quasi-particle interference patterns are studied, which can be tested in future tunneling experiments.

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• Classification of topological insulators and superconductors in three spatial dimensions
• Topological surface states in nodal superconductors
• Hidden symmetry and quantum phases in spin-3/2 cold atomic systems
• Anomalous Andreev bound state in non-centrosymmetric superconductors
• Topologically protected flat zero-energy surface bands in non-centrosymmetric superconductors
• Inflated nodes and surface states in superconducting half-Heusler compounds
• Spectroscopic Imaging Scanning Tunneling Microscopy as a Probe of Orbital Structures and Ordering
• Surface instability in nodal noncentrosymmetric superconductors

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Tuning the Parity Mixing of Singlet-Septet Pairing in a Half-Heusler Superconductor
• Symmetry, nodal structure, and Bogoliubov Fermi surfaces for nonlocal pairing
• Distortional weak-coupling instability of Bogoliubov Fermi surfaces
• Campbell penetration depth in low carrier density superconductor YPtBi
• Antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations and unconventional superconductivity in topological superconductor candidate YPtBi revealed by ${}^{195}$Pt-NMR
• Intrinsic finite-energy Cooper pairing in $j=3/2$ superconductors
• Time reversal symmetry breaking and $d$-wave superconductivity of triple-point fermions
• Spin-orbit-coupled superconductivity with spin-singlet non-unitary pairing
• Helical Topological Superconducting Pairing at Finite Excitation Energies
• Infrared fixed points of higher-spin fermions in topological semimetals