Majorana edge states in superconductor-noncollinear magnet interfaces

Wei Chen; Andreas P. Schnyder

doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.92.214502

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Majorana edge states in superconductor-noncollinear magnet interfaces

Wei Chen, Andreas P. Schnyder

DOI 10.1103/PhysRevB.92.214502 · Physical Review B

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Abstract

Through s−d coupling, a superconducting thin film interfaced to a noncollinear magnetic insulator inherits its magnetic order, which may induce unconventional superconductivity that hosts Majorana edge states. We present a unified formalism that covers the cycloidal, helical, and tilted conical order discovered in multiferroics, as well as Bloch and Neel domain walls of ferromagnetic insulators, and show that they induce (px+py)-wave pairing that supports Majorana edge modes. The advantages over one-dimensional proposals are that the Majorana states can exist without fine tuning of the chemical potential, can be stabilized in a much larger parameter space, and can be separated over the distance of long-range noncollinear order that is known to reach a macroscopic scale. A skyrmion spin texture, on the other hand, induces a nonuniform (pr+ipφ)-wave-like pairing under the influence of an emergent electromagnetic field, yielding a vortex state that displays both a bulk persistent current and a topological edge current.

Source-reported materials — not catalogue approval

Formula	Reported Tc (K)	Pressure (GPa)	Type
Fe Archive — visibility unverified Source-occurrence policy only; no material identity or catalogue acceptance is inferred from the formula.	—	Pressure not reported	unknown
Pb Archive — visibility unverified Source-occurrence policy only; no material identity or catalogue acceptance is inferred from the formula.	—	Pressure not reported	unknown