Hu Lun-Hui, Zhang Rui-Xing
Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA.
Institute for Advanced Materials and Manufacturing, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA.
Nat Commun. 2024 Mar 15;15(1):2337. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-46618-9.
We show that lattice dislocations of topological iron-based superconductors such as FeTeSe will intrinsically trap non-Abelian Majorana quasiparticles, in the absence of any external magnetic field. Our theory is motivated by the recent experimental observations of normal-state weak topology and surface magnetism that coexist with superconductivity in FeTeSe, the combination of which naturally achieves an emergent second-order topological superconductivity in a two-dimensional subsystem spanned by screw or edge dislocations. This exemplifies a new embedded higher-order topological phase in class D, where Majorana zero modes appear around the "corners" of a low-dimensional embedded subsystem, instead of those of the full crystal. A nested domain wall theory is developed to understand the origin of these defect Majorana zero modes. When the surface magnetism is absent, we further find that s pairing symmetry itself is capable of inducing a different type of class-DIII embedded higher-order topology with defect-bound Majorana Kramers pairs. We also provide detailed discussions on the real-world material candidates for our proposals, including FeTeSe, LiFeAs, β-PdBi, and heterostructures of bismuth, etc. Our work establishes lattice defects as a new venue to achieve high-temperature topological quantum information processing.
我们表明,在没有任何外部磁场的情况下,拓扑铁基超导体(如FeTeSe)的晶格位错将固有地捕获非阿贝尔马约拉纳准粒子。我们的理论受到最近在FeTeSe中与超导共存的正常态弱拓扑和表面磁性的实验观察结果的启发,二者的结合自然地在由螺旋或边缘位错跨越的二维子系统中实现了一种涌现的二阶拓扑超导性。这例证了D类中的一种新的嵌入式高阶拓扑相,其中马约拉纳零模出现在低维嵌入式子系统的“角”周围,而不是完整晶体的角周围。我们发展了一种嵌套畴壁理论来理解这些缺陷马约拉纳零模的起源。当不存在表面磁性时,我们进一步发现s波配对对称性本身能够诱导出一种不同类型的具有缺陷束缚马约拉纳克莱默斯对的DIII类嵌入式高阶拓扑。我们还对我们提议中的实际材料候选物进行了详细讨论,包括FeTeSe、LiFeAs、β-PdBi以及铋的异质结构等。我们的工作将晶格缺陷确立为实现高温拓扑量子信息处理的新途径。