Quasiparticle Interference of Spin-Triplet Superconductors: Application to UTe2

Hans Christiansen; Brian M. Andersen; P. J. Hirschfeld; Andreas Kreisel

doi:10.1103/pttl-8m71

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Quasiparticle Interference of Spin-Triplet Superconductors: Application to UTe2

Hans Christiansen, Brian M. Andersen, P. J. Hirschfeld, Andreas Kreisel

DOI 10.1103/pttl-8m71 · Physical Review Letters

T1

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Abstract

Quasiparticle interference (QPI) obtained from scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) is a powerful method to help extract the pairing symmetry of unconventional superconductors. We examine the general properties of QPI on surfaces of spin-triplet superconductors. It is shown how the multicomponent nature of the spin-triplet d→-vector and the general existence of topological surface states in triplet condensates both offer important differences from QPI on spin-singlet superconductors. We then turn to a microscopic model relevant for the spin-triplet candidate UTe2 and compare the computed QPI with recent STM measurements. We conclude that the two candidate pairing instabilities B2u and B3u exhibit distinct features in the QPI intensity which allows for distinguishing them using the experimental data. Characteristic features of the emergent topological surface states protected by chiral symmetry in general, and by mirror symmetries in the case of UTe2, provide further unique signatures to help pinpoint the pairing symmetry channel of this material.

Source-reported materials — not catalogue approval

Formula	Reported Tc (K)	Pressure (GPa)	Type
UTe2 Archive — visibility unverified Source-occurrence policy only; no material identity or catalogue acceptance is inferred from the formula.	—	Pressure not reported	unknown