Identification of topological superconductivity in magnetic impurity systems using bulk spin polarization

Mahdi Mashkoori*, Saurabh Pradhan, Kristofer Bjornson, Jonas Fransson, Annica M. Black-Schaffer

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

18 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

Magnetic impurities on the surface of Rashba spin-orbit-coupled, but otherwise conventional, superconductors provide a promising way to engineer topological superconductors with Majorana bound states as boundary modes. In this work we show that the spin-polarization in the interior of both one-dimensional impurity chains and two-dimensional islands in these systems can be used to determine the superconducting topological phase, as it changes sign exactly at the topological phase transition. Thus, spin polarization offers an alternative method to detect the topological phase in magnetic impurity chains and islands deposited on conventional superconductors, beyond the zero-energy Majorana bound states.

Original languageEnglish
Article number104501
JournalPhysical Review B
Volume102
Issue number10
Number of pages10
ISSN2469-9950
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 8 Sep 2020

Keywords

  • MAJORANA FERMIONS
  • STATES

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