Spin current in topologically trivial and nontrivial noncentrosymmetric superconductors

Abstract

We study theoretically the surface of time-reversal-symmetric, noncentrosymmetric superconductor with mixed singlet and triplet order parameters. A pair of counterpropagating subgap quasiparticle surface bound states with opposite spin projections are obtained in the nontrivial Z2 case where the triplet component is larger than the singlet one, contributing to a spin current with out-of-plane spin projection. In contrast to the pure p-wave cases, these subgap states do not have fixed spin projections, which, however, depend on the momenta along the surface. In the trivial Z2 case where the singlet order parameter is larger, no subgap surface bound states show up. In both cases, there is also a finite contribution to the spin current from the continuum states with energies between the two gaps. The method for obtaining the quasiclassical Green’s functions associated with the noncentrosymmetric superconductors is also presented.

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