Spin-polarized zero-bias peak from a single magnetic impurity at an s-wave superconductor: first-principles study

Abstract

Magnetic impurities at surfaces of superconductors can induce bound states referred to as Yu-Shiba-Rusinov (YSR) states within superconducting gaps. Understanding of YSR states with spin-orbit coupling (SOC) plays a pivotal role in studies of Majorana zero modes. Spin polarization of a zero-bias peak (ZBP) is used to determine its topological nature. Here we investigate the YSR states of single magnetic impurities at the surface of Pb using the fully relativistic first-principles simulations including band structure of Pb and five 3$d$ orbitals of the impurity in the superconducting state. We show that for single Fe and Co impurities, strong SOC can induce a ZBP with rotation of the impurity magnetic moment and that the ZBP has large spin polarization in contrast to effective model studies. Conditions for a ZBP from a single magnetic impurity are discussed. Our results are relevant to longer atomic chains considering their canting and noncollinear magnetism.

References in corpus (22)

• Observation of Majorana Fermions in Ferromagnetic Atomic Chains on a Superconductor
• Majorana Zero Modes and Topological Quantum Computation
• Topological Superconductivity and Majorana Fermions in RKKY Systems
• Self-Organized Topological State with Majorana Fermions
• Distinguishing a Majorana zero mode using spin resolved measurements
• Spectral Properties of Quasiparticle Excitations Induced by Magnetic Moments in Superconductors
• High-resolution studies of the Majorana atomic chain platform
• Topological Superconductivity induced by Ferromagnetic Metal Chains
• Magnetic anisotropy in Shiba bound states across a quantum phase transition
• The local spectrum of a superconductor as a probe of interactions between magnetic impurities
• Orbital-Selective Spin Texture and its Manipulation in a Topological Insulator
• Spin-polarized Yu-Shiba-Rusinov states in an iron based superconductor
• Quantum Interference between Impurities: Creating Novel Many-Body States in s-wave Superconductors
• Spiral magnetic order and topological superconductivity in a chain of magnetic adatoms on a two-dimensional superconductor
• Quantum impurity spin in Majorana edge fermions
• Tuning interactions between spins in a superconductor
• Impurity-induced bound states in superconductors with spin-orbit coupling
• The Majorana spin in magnetic atomic chain systems
• Multiple scattering theory for superconducting heterostructures
• Majorana fermion fingerprints in spin-polarised scanning tunneling microscopy
• Quantum impurity coupled to Majorana edge fermions
• Real-space multiple scattering theory for superconductors with impurities