Chirality sensitive effect on surface states in chiral p-wave superconductors.
We study the local density of states at the surface of a chiral p-wave superconductor in the presence of a weak magnetic field. As a result, the formation of low-energy Andreev bound states is either suppressed or enhanced by an applied magnetic field, depending on its orientation with respect to the chirality of the p-wave superconductor. Similarly, an Abrikosov vortex, which is situated not too far from the surface, leads to a zero-energy peak of the density of states, if its chirality is the same as that of the superconductor, and to a gap structure for the opposite case. We explain the underlying principle of this effect and propose a chirality sensitive test on unconventional superconductors.
Department of Applied Physics, Nagoya University, Nagoya, 464-8603, Japan.
Takehito
T
Yokoyama
Christian
C
Iniotakis
Yukio
Y
Tanaka
Manfred
M
Sigrist