Spin-Orbital Ground States of Superconducting Doped Topological Insulators: A Majorana Platform

Abstract

The Bi2 Se3 class of topological insulators has recently been shown to undergo a superconducting transition upon hole or electron doping (Cux-Bi2Se3 with TC=3.8°K and Pdx-Bi2Te3 with TC=5.5°K), raising the possibilities that these are "topological superconductors" or realize a superconducting state that can be used as Majorana platform. We use angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy to examine elements of band structure that determine the spin-orbital ground states of superconducting Cux-Bi2Se3 and Bi2Te3, observing that the spin-momentum locked topological surface states remain well defined and non-degenerate with respect to bulk electronic states at the Fermi level in optimally doped Cux-Bi2Se3. The implications of this unconventional superconducting surface topology are discussed, and we explore the possibility of realizing the same topology in superconducting variants of Bi2Te3. Characteristics of the experimentally measured three dimensional bulk states are examined with respect to the superconducting state and topological properties, showing that a single Majorana fermion zero mode is expected to be bound at each superconducting vortex on the crystal surface. Systematic measurements also reveal intriguing renormalization and charge correlation instabilities of the surface-localized electronic modes.

Department(s)

Physics

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

1098-0121

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Final Version

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2011 American Physical Society (APS), All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Jun 2011

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