Topological Superconducting Vortex From Trivial Electronic Bands

Abstract

Superconducting vortices are promising traps to confine non-Abelian Majorana quasi-particles. It has been widely believed that bulk-state topology, of either normal-state or superconducting ground-state wavefunctions, is crucial for enabling Majorana zero modes in solid-state systems. This common belief has shaped two major search directions for Majorana modes, in either intrinsic topological superconductors or trivially superconducting topological materials. Here we show that Majorana-carrying superconducting vortex is not exclusive to bulk-state topology, but can arise from topologically trivial quantum materials as well. We predict that the trivial bands in superconducting HgTe-class materials are responsible for inducing anomalous vortex topological physics that goes beyond any existing theoretical paradigms. A feasible scheme of strain-controlled Majorana engineering and experimental signatures for vortex Majorana modes are also discussed. Our work provides new guidelines for vortex-based Majorana search in general superconductors.

12+11 pages, 4+4 figures, 1 table

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Cited by in corpus (6)

• Surface-dependent Majorana vortex phases in topological crystalline insulators
• Crystal-symmetry-protected gapless vortex-line phases in superconducting Dirac semimetals
• Perfectly localized Majorana corner modes in fermionic lattices
• Majorana Flat Bands in the Vortex Line of Superconducting Weyl Semimetals
• Altermagnetism Induced Bogoliubov Fermi Surfaces Form Topological Superconductivity
• Majorana vortex phases in time-reversal invariant higher-order topological insulators and topologically trivial insulators