English

Chiral-Flux-Phase-Based Topological Superconductivity in Kagome Systems with Mixed Edge Chiralities

Superconductivity 2023-08-30 v3 Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics

Abstract

Recent studies have attracted intense attention on the quasi-2D kagome superconductors AV3Sb5 A\text{V}_3\text{Sb}_5 (A= A = K, Rb, and Cs) where the unexpected chiral flux phase (CFP) associates with the spontaneous time-reversal symmetry breaking in charge density wave (CDW) states. Here, commencing from the 2-by-2 CDW phases, we bridge the gap between topological superconductivity (TSC) and time-reversal asymmetric CFP in kagome systems. Several chiral TSC states featuring distinct Chern numbers emerge for an s-wave or a d-wave superconducting pairing symmetry. Importantly, these CFP-based TSC phases possess unique gapless edge modes with mixed chiralities (i.e., both positive and negative chiralities), but with the net chiralities consistent with the Bogoliubov-de Gennes Chern numbers. We further study the transport properties of a two-terminal junction, using Chern insulator or normal metal leads via atomic Green's function method with Landauer-B\"uttiker formalism. In both cases, the normal electron tunneling and the crossed Andreev reflection oscillate as the chemical potential changes, but together contribute to plateau transmissions (1 and 3/2, respectively). These behaviors can be regarded as the signature of a topological superconductor hosting edge states with mixed chiralities.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2303.16007,
  title  = {Chiral-Flux-Phase-Based Topological Superconductivity in Kagome Systems with Mixed Edge Chiralities},
  author = {Junjie Zeng and Qingming Li and Xun Yang and Dong-Hui Xu and Rui Wang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2303.16007},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

6 pages, 4 figures