Topological superconductivity in the attractive Rashba-Hubbard model: A quantum Monte Carlo dynamical cluster approximation study

ORAL

Abstract

Fully gapped, spin singlet superconductors with antisymmetric spin-orbit coupling in a Zeeman magnetic field provide a promising route to realize superconducting states with non-Abelian topological order and therefore fault-tolerant quantum computation. Here we use a quantum Monte Carlo dynamical cluster approximation to study the superconducting properties of a doped two-dimensional attractive Hubbard model with Rashba spin orbit coupling in a Zeeman magnetic field. In the absence of spin orbit coupling, we find that the Zeeman field completely suppresses superconductivity in this model as expected from the Pauli depairing effect. When the Rashba spin orbit coupling is turned on, however, superconductivity is restored at finite temperatures. By inspecting the Fermi surface of the interacting model, we can draw conclusions about the topological character of the superconducting state.

*This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division. The development of the DCA++ code used in this project was in part supported by the Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC) program funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Advanced Scientific Computing Research and Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering. This research used resources of the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility, which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility supported under Contract DE-AC05-00OR22725.

Presenters

  • Thomas A Maier

    • Oak Ridge National Lab

Authors

  • Thomas A Maier

    • Oak Ridge National Lab
  • Peter Doak

    • Oak Ridge National Laboratory
  • Giovanni Balduzzi

    • ETH Zurich
    • ETH Zürich