English

Z$_2$ nontrivial topology of rare-earth binary oxide superconductor

Superconductivity 2022-01-28 v2 Strongly Correlated Electrons

Abstract

Recently, superconductivity has been discovered in rock-salt structured binary lanthanum monoxide LaO through state-of-the-art oxide thin-film epitaxy. In this work, we reveal that the normal state of superconducting LaO is a Z2Z_2 nontrivial topological metal, where the Dirac point protected by the crystal symmetry is located around the Fermi energy. By analysing the orbital characteristics, we show that the nature of the topological band structure of LaO originates from the intra-atomic transition from the outer shell La 5dd to the inner shell 4ff orbitals driven by the strong octahedral crystal-field. Furthermore, the appearance of novel surface states unambiguously demonstrates the topological signature of LaO superconductor. Our theoretical findings not only shed new light into the understanding of the exotic quantum behaviors in LaO superconductor with intimate correlation between 4ff and 5dd orbitals in La, but also provide an exciting platform to explore the interplay between nontrivial topology and superconductivity.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2108.10063,
  title  = {Z$_2$ nontrivial topology of rare-earth binary oxide superconductor},
  author = {Jiahui Qian and Zongqi Shen and Xinyuan Wei and Wei Li},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2108.10063},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

6 pages, 4 figures, 1 table