Rashba sandwiches with topological superconducting phases

Yanick Volpez, Daniel Loss, and Jelena Klinovaja
Phys. Rev. B 97, 195421 – Published 14 May 2018

Abstract

We introduce a versatile heterostructure harboring various topological superconducting phases characterized by the presence of helical, chiral, or unidirectional edge states. Changing parameters, such as an effective Zeeman field or chemical potential, one can tune between these three topological phases in the same setup. Our model relies only on conventional nontopological ingredients. The bilayer setup consists of an s-wave superconductor sandwiched between two two-dimensional electron gas layers with strong Rashba spin-orbit interaction. The interplay between two different pairing mechanisms, proximity induced direct and crossed Andreev superconducting pairings, gives rise to multiple topological phases. In particular, helical edge states occur if crossed Andreev superconducting pairing is dominant. In addition, an in-plane Zeeman field leads to a two-dimensional gapless topological phase with unidirectional edge states, which were previously predicted to exist only in noncentrosymmetric superconductors. If the Zeeman field is tilted out of the plane, the system is in a topological phase hosting chiral edge states.

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  • Received 2 March 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.97.195421

©2018 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Yanick Volpez, Daniel Loss, and Jelena Klinovaja

  • Department of Physics, University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 82, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland

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Issue

Vol. 97, Iss. 19 — 15 May 2018

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