English

Half-metallic Surface States and Topological Superconductivity in NaCoO$_2$ from first principles

Materials Science 2011-09-02 v2

Abstract

Based on first-principles calculations, we predict a half-metallic surface state in layered bulk insulator NaCoO2, with tunable surface hole concentration. The half-metallic surface has a single Fermi surface with a helical spin texture, similar to the surface state of topological insulators, but with the key difference of time-reversal symmetry breaking in the present case. We propose the realization of topological superconductivity and Majorana fermions when the half-metallic surface states are in proximity contact with a conventional superconductor.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1103.1930,
  title  = {Half-metallic Surface States and Topological Superconductivity in NaCoO$_2$ from first principles},
  author = {Hongming Weng and Gang Xu and Haijun Zhang and Shou-Cheng Zhang and Xi Dai and Zhong Fang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1103.1930},
  year   = {2011}
}

Comments

Published as Rapid Communications in Phys. Rev. B 84, 060408(R) (2011) [4 pages]