Self-organized topological superconductivity in a Yu-Shiba-Rusinov chain

Michael Alan Schecter; Karsten Flensberg; Morten Holm Christensen; Brian Møller Andersen; Jens Paaske

doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.93.140503

Self-organized topological superconductivity in a Yu-Shiba-Rusinov chain

Michael Alan Schecter, Karsten Flensberg, Morten Holm Christensen, Brian Møller Andersen, Jens Paaske

32 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We study a chain of magnetic moments exchange coupled to a conventional three-dimensional superconductor. In the normal state the chain orders into a collinear configuration, while in the superconducting phase we find that ferromagnetism is unstable to the formation of a magnetic spiral state. Beyond weak exchange coupling the spiral wave vector greatly exceeds the inverse superconducting coherence length as a result of the strong spin-spin interaction mediated through the subgap band of Yu-Shiba-Rusinov states. Moreover, the simple spin-spin exchange description breaks down as the subgap band crosses the Fermi energy, wherein the spiral phase becomes stabilized by the spontaneous opening of a p-wave superconducting gap within the band. This leads to the possibility of electron-driven topological superconductivity with Majorana boundary modes using magnetic atoms on superconducting surfaces.

Original language	English
Article number	140503
Journal	Physical Review Letters
Volume	93
Issue number	14
Number of pages	6
ISSN	0031-9007
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.93.140503
Publication status	Published - 11 Apr 2016

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title = "Self-organized topological superconductivity in a Yu-Shiba-Rusinov chain",

abstract = "We study a chain of magnetic moments exchange coupled to a conventional three-dimensional superconductor. In the normal state the chain orders into a collinear configuration, while in the superconducting phase we find that ferromagnetism is unstable to the formation of a magnetic spiral state. Beyond weak exchange coupling the spiral wave vector greatly exceeds the inverse superconducting coherence length as a result of the strong spin-spin interaction mediated through the subgap band of Yu-Shiba-Rusinov states. Moreover, the simple spin-spin exchange description breaks down as the subgap band crosses the Fermi energy, wherein the spiral phase becomes stabilized by the spontaneous opening of a p-wave superconducting gap within the band. This leads to the possibility of electron-driven topological superconductivity with Majorana boundary modes using magnetic atoms on superconducting surfaces.",

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AU - Flensberg, Karsten

AU - Christensen, Morten Holm

AU - Andersen, Brian Møller

AU - Paaske, Jens

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N2 - We study a chain of magnetic moments exchange coupled to a conventional three-dimensional superconductor. In the normal state the chain orders into a collinear configuration, while in the superconducting phase we find that ferromagnetism is unstable to the formation of a magnetic spiral state. Beyond weak exchange coupling the spiral wave vector greatly exceeds the inverse superconducting coherence length as a result of the strong spin-spin interaction mediated through the subgap band of Yu-Shiba-Rusinov states. Moreover, the simple spin-spin exchange description breaks down as the subgap band crosses the Fermi energy, wherein the spiral phase becomes stabilized by the spontaneous opening of a p-wave superconducting gap within the band. This leads to the possibility of electron-driven topological superconductivity with Majorana boundary modes using magnetic atoms on superconducting surfaces.

AB - We study a chain of magnetic moments exchange coupled to a conventional three-dimensional superconductor. In the normal state the chain orders into a collinear configuration, while in the superconducting phase we find that ferromagnetism is unstable to the formation of a magnetic spiral state. Beyond weak exchange coupling the spiral wave vector greatly exceeds the inverse superconducting coherence length as a result of the strong spin-spin interaction mediated through the subgap band of Yu-Shiba-Rusinov states. Moreover, the simple spin-spin exchange description breaks down as the subgap band crosses the Fermi energy, wherein the spiral phase becomes stabilized by the spontaneous opening of a p-wave superconducting gap within the band. This leads to the possibility of electron-driven topological superconductivity with Majorana boundary modes using magnetic atoms on superconducting surfaces.

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Self-organized topological superconductivity in a Yu-Shiba-Rusinov chain

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