New class of topological superconductors protected by magnetic group symmetries

2013/08/31 by Chen Fang, Matthew J. Gilbert, B. Andrei Bernevig · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #cond-mat.mes-hall #cond-mat.supr-con

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.112.106401

published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 106401 (2014) · Accepted version to appear in PRL: 4-page text plus 4-page supplementary materials, two figures

arxiv created 2014/02/06 · arxiv updated 2014/03/12

Abstract

We study a new type of three-dimensional topological superconductors that exhibit Majorana zero modes (MZM) protected by a magnetic group symmetry, a combined antiunitary symmetry composed of a mirror reflection and time-reversal. This new symmetry enhances the noninteracting topological classification of a superconducting vortex from Z₂ to Z, indicating that multiple MZMs can coexist at the end of one magnetic vortex of unit flux. Specially, we show that a vortex binding two MZMs can be realized on the (001)-surface of a topological crystalline insulator SnTe with proximity induced BCS Cooper pairing, or in bulk superconductor In_xSn_1-xTe.

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• Intertwining Josephson and Vortex Topologies in Conventional Superconductors
• Exceptionally large winding number of a finite-size topological superconductor