Erratum: Engineering a p+ip Superconductor: Comparison of Topological Insulator and Rashba Spin-Orbit Coupled Materials [Phys. Rev. B 83, 184520 (2011)]

TL;DR

This erratum clarifies that bulk disorder in spin-orbit coupled materials does not significantly suppress induced superconductivity, contrasting previous claims, but impurities and interface disorder remain detrimental unless spin-orbit coupling is strong.

Contribution

The paper revises previous conclusions by showing bulk disorder effects are negligible, refining understanding of disorder impacts on p+ip superconductor proposals.

Findings

Bulk disorder does not suppress induced superconductivity.

Impurities and interface disorder can suppress superconductivity.

Large spin-orbit coupling mitigates impurity effects.

Abstract

In this erratum, we revisit the issue of bulk-disorder on proposals to realize an effective p+ip superconductor from spin-orbit coupled materials. Contrary to the claim in [Phys. Rev. B 83, 184520 (2011)], we show that the pair breaking effects of bulk-disorder are negligible, and that bulk disorder does not suppress the induced superconductivity. This argument does not apply to our conclusions regarding impurities residing in the spin-orbit coupled material or disorder at the interface to the bulk superconductor, both of which tend to suppress superconductivity unless spin-orbit coupling is large.