2004/04/30 by Qinghong Cui, Xin Wan, Kun Yang
Physics and Astronomy · #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #Topological Materials and Phenomena #cond-mat.mes-hall #cond-mat.supr-con
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.70.094506
published as Phys. Rev. B 70, 094506 (2004) · 9 pages, 9 figures
openalex publication_date 2004/09/16 · arxiv created 2004/10/19 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We present the results of numerical studies of spin quantum Hall transitions in disordered superconductors, in which the pairing order parameter breaks time-reversal symmetry. We focus mainly on p-wave superconductors in which one of the spin components is conserved. The transport properties of the system are studied by numerically diagonalizing pairing Hamiltonians on a lattice, and by calculating the Chern and Thouless numbers of the quasiparticle states. We find that in the presence of disorder, (spin-)current carrying states exist only at discrete critical energies in the thermodynamic limit, and the spin quantum Hall transition driven by an external Zeeman field has the same critical behavior as the usual integer quantum Hall transition of noninteracting electrons. These critical energies merge and disappear as disorder strength increases, in a manner similar to those in lattice models for integer quantum Hall transition.