skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Odd-parity topological superconductor with nematic order: Application to Cu x Bi 2 Se 3

Journal Article · · Physical Review. B, Condensed Matter and Materials Physics
 [1]
  1. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)

CuxBi2Se3 was recently proposed as a promising candidate for time-reversal-invariant topological superconductors. In this work, we argue that the unusual anisotropy of the Knight shift observed by Zheng and co-workers (unpublished), taken together with specific heat measurements, provides strong support for an unconventional odd-parity pairing in the two-dimensional Eu representation of the D3d crystal point group, which spontaneously breaks the threefold rotational symmetry of the crystal, leading to a subsidiary nematic order. We predict that the spin-orbit interaction associated with hexagonal warping plays a crucial role in pinning the two-component order parameter and makes the superconducting state generically fully gapped, leading to a topological superconductor. In conclusion, experimental signatures of the Eu pairing related to the nematic order are discussed.

Research Organization:
Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0010526
OSTI ID:
1505788
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1181411
Journal Information:
Physical Review. B, Condensed Matter and Materials Physics, Vol. 90, Issue 10; ISSN 1098-0121
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 163 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (46)

The Transition Between Real and Complex Superconducting Order Parameter Phases in UPt3 journal June 2010
Ising and spin orders in the iron-based superconductors journal July 2008
Bulk Superconducting Phase with a Full Energy Gap in the Doped Topological Insulator Cu x Bi 2 Se 3 journal March 2011
Striped superconductors: how spin, charge and superconducting orders intertwine in the cuprates journal November 2009
Quantum Oscillations in the Topological Superconductor Candidate Cu 0.25 Bi 2 Se 3 journal November 2012
Models of superconducting Cu:Bi 2 Se 3 : Single- versus two-band description journal March 2013
Field-Angle-Dependent Low-Energy Excitations around a Vortex in the Superconducting Topological Insulator Cu x Bi 2 Se 3 journal June 2014
Model Hamiltonian for topological insulators journal July 2010
Time-Reversal-Invariant Topological Superconductors and Superfluids in Two and Three Dimensions journal May 2009
Strong Increase of Tc of Sr2RuO4 Under Both Tensile and Compressive Strain journal April 2014
Chiral superconductivity from repulsive interactions in doped graphene journal January 2012
Odd-Parity Topological Superconductors: Theory and Application to Cu x Bi 2 Se 3 journal August 2010
Topological Superconductivity in Cu x Bi 2 Se 3 journal November 2011
Topological superconducting phase in the vicinity of ferromagnetic phases journal July 2012
The order parameter for the superconducting phases of UPt 3 journal February 1994
Classification of topological insulators and superconductors in three spatial dimensions journal November 2008
Phenomenological theory of unconventional superconductivity journal April 1991
Topological odd-parity superconductors journal June 2010
Topological Superconductivity in Bilayer Rashba System journal April 2012
Evolution of the Fermi surface of a doped topological insulator with carrier concentration journal November 2013
Two-dimensional time-reversal-invariant topological superconductivity in a doped quantum spin-Hall insulator journal August 2014
Migdal's theorem and electron-phonon vertex corrections in Dirac materials journal April 2014
Symmetry properties of triplet superconductors journal September 1985
Time-reversal-invariant topological superconductivity in doped Weyl semimetals journal July 2014
Hexagonal Warping Effects in the Surface States of the Topological Insulator Bi 2 Te 3 journal December 2009
Superconductivity in Cu x Bi 2 Se 3 and its Implications for Pairing in the Undoped Topological Insulator journal February 2010
Quasi-Classical Theory of Tunneling Spectroscopy in Superconducting Topological Insulator journal June 2014
Superconductivity in the Doped Topological Insulator Cu x Bi 2 Se 3 under High Pressure journal January 2012
Majorana Fermions and Exotic Surface Andreev Bound States in Topological Superconductors: Application to Cu x Bi 2 Se 3 journal March 2012
Experimental Evidence for s -Wave Pairing Symmetry in Superconducting Cu x Bi 2 Se 3 Single Crystals Using a Scanning Tunneling Microscope journal March 2013
Theory of electron nematic order in LaFeAsO journal June 2008
Observation of topological order in a superconducting doped topological insulator journal September 2010
Preemptive nematic order, pseudogap, and orbital order in the iron pnictides journal January 2012
Point-contact spectroscopy of Cu 0.2 Bi 2 Se 3 single crystals journal August 2012
Turning a band insulator into an exotic superconductor journal July 2014
Topological invariants for the Fermi surface of a time-reversal-invariant superconductor journal April 2010
Topological Blount's theorem of odd-parity superconductors journal July 2014
Classification of topological insulators and superconductors in three spatial dimensions text January 2008
Preemptive nematic order, pseudogap, and orbital order in the iron pnictides text January 2011
Superconductivity in the doped topological insulator Cu$_x$Bi$_2$Se$_3$ under high pressure text January 2011
Turning a Band Insulator Into an Exotic Superconductor text January 2013
Migdal's theorem and electron-phonon vertex corrections in Dirac materials text January 2014
Two-dimensional time-reversal-invariant topological superconductivity in a doped quantum spin Hall insulator text January 2014
Quasi-classical theory of tunneling spectroscopy in superconducting topological insulator text January 2014
Field-angle-dependent low-energy excitations around a vortex in the superconducting topological insulator CuxBi2Se3 text January 2014
Time-reversal invariant topological superconductivity in doped Weyl semimetals text January 2014

Cited By (44)

Exploring Topological Superconductivity in Topological Materials journal July 2019
Drive the Dirac electrons into Cooper pairs in SrxBi2Se3 journal February 2017
Thermodynamic evidence for nematic superconductivity in CuxBi2Se3 journal October 2016
Evidence for singular-phonon-induced nematic superconductivity in a topological superconductor candidate Sr0.1Bi2Se3 journal June 2019
Direction and symmetry transition of the vector order parameter in topological superconductors CuxBi2Se3 journal January 2020
Nematic topological superconducting phase in Nb-doped Bi2Se3 journal October 2017
Superconductivity from valley fluctuations and approximate SO(4) symmetry in a weak coupling theory of twisted bilayer graphene journal April 2019
Evidence of anisotropic Majorana bound states in 2M-WS2 journal July 2019
Superconducting and normal-state anisotropy of the doped topological insulator Sr0.1Bi2Se3 journal May 2018
Rotational symmetry breaking in the topological superconductor SrxBi2Se3 probed by upper-critical field experiments journal June 2016
Visualizing pairing symmetry in nematic superconductors using spin-polarized spectroscopy of magnetic impurities journal October 2019
Topological superconductors: a review journal May 2017
Structural distortion behind the nematic superconductivity in Sr x Bi 2 Se 3 journal October 2018
Effect of the electron-phonon interaction on the spin texture in Bi 2 y Sb y Se 3 x Te x journal October 2019
Strain-driven nematicity of odd-parity superconductivity in Sr x Bi 2 Se 3 journal December 2019
Microscopic characterization of the superconducting gap function in Sn 1 x In x Te journal January 2020
Surface electronic state of superconducting topological crystalline insulator journal November 2015
Identification of nematic superconductivity from the upper critical field journal September 2016
Unusual upper critical field behavior in Nb-doped bismuth selenides journal May 2017
Quantum oscillations and Dirac-Landau levels in Weyl superconductors journal December 2017
Nanocalorimetric evidence for nematic superconductivity in the doped topological insulator Sr 0.1 Bi 2 Se 3 journal November 2018
Nematic superconductivity in Cu 1.5 ( PbSe ) 5 ( Bi 2 Se 3 ) 6 journal December 2018
Antichiral and nematicity-wave superconductivity journal June 2019
Quasiparticle Evidence for the Nematic State above T c in Sr x Bi 2 Se 3 journal July 2019
Possible structural origin of superconductivity in Sr-doped B i 2 S e 3 journal January 2018
Direct Visualization of the Nematic Superconductivity in Cu x Bi 2 Se 3 journal November 2018
Beyond triplet: Unconventional superconductivity in a spin-3/2 topological semimetal journal April 2018
Superconductivity with twofold symmetry in Bi 2 Te 3 /FeTe 0.55 Se 0.45 heterostructures journal June 2018
Generalized Anderson’s theorem for superconductors derived from topological insulators journal February 2020
Nematic Superconductivity in Doped Bi2Se3 Topological Superconductors journal December 2018
Surface electronic state of superconducting topological crystalline insulator text January 2015
Odd-parity superconductivity in the vicinity of inversion symmetry breaking in spin-orbit-coupled systems text January 2015
Beyond Triplet: Unconventional Superconductivity in a Spin-3/2 Topological Semimetal text January 2016
Quantum oscillations and Dirac-Landau levels in Weyl superconductors text January 2017
Tailoring $T_c$ by symmetry principles: The concept of Superconducting Fitness text January 2018
Bogoliubov Fermi surfaces: General theory, magnetic order, and topology text January 2018
Nematic superconductivity stabilized by density wave fluctuations: Possible application to twisted bilayer graphene text January 2018
Antichiral and nematicity-wave superconductivity text January 2018
Nematic superconductivity in doped Bi2Se3 topological superconductors text January 2018
Identification of superconducting pairing symmetry in twisted bilayer graphene using in-plane magnetic field and strain text January 2019
Exploring Topological Superconductivity in Topological Materials text January 2019
Generalized Anderson's theorem for superconductors derived from topological insulators text January 2019
Experimental consequences of Bogoliubov Fermi surfaces text January 2019
Direction and symmetry transition of the vector order parameter in topological superconductors Cu$_x$Bi$_2$Se$_3$ text January 2019

Figures / Tables (1)


Similar Records

Robust odd-parity superconductivity in the doped topological insulator NbxBi2Se3
Journal Article · Fri Sep 15 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Physical Review B · OSTI ID:1505788

Se77 NMR investigation of the Kx Fe 2-y Se 2 high- Tc superconductor ( Tc=33 K)
Journal Article · Tue Mar 01 00:00:00 EST 2011 · Physical Review. B, Condensed Matter and Materials Physics · OSTI ID:1505788

Absence of nematic ordering transition in a diamond lattice: Application to FeSc2S4
Journal Article · Tue Jan 03 00:00:00 EST 2017 · Physical Review B · OSTI ID:1505788