Chiral d-wave superconducting state in the core of a doubly quantized s-wave vortex in graphene

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that a chiral d-wave superconducting state can be induced and strengthened in the core of a doubly quantized s-wave vortex in doped graphene, with potential detection via local density of states measurements.

Contribution

It reveals how proximity effects in graphene can induce a chiral d-wave state in vortex cores, highlighting the role of vortex geometry and temperature dependence.

Findings

Chiral d-wave state is induced in the vortex core.

The d-wave core amplitude follows a specific temperature dependence.

Detection can be achieved through local density of states measurements.

Abstract

We show that the intrinsic chiral $d_{x^2-y^2} \pm id_{xy}$-wave superconducting pairing in doped graphene is significantly strengthened in the core region of a doubly quantized s-wave superconducting vortex produced in a graphene-superconductor hybrid structure. The chiral d-wave state is induced by proximity effect, which transfers the center-of-mass angular momentum of the s-wave vortex to the orbital angular momentum of the chiral d-wave Cooper pairs. The proximity effect is enhanced by the circular geometry of the vortex and we find a $[1 + (T-T_{c,J})^2]^{-1}$ temperature dependence for the chiral d-wave core amplitude, where $T_{c,J}$ is its intrinsic bulk transition temperature. We further propose to detect the chiral d-wave state by studying the temperature dependence of the low-energy local density of states in the vortex core, which displays a sudden radial change as function of the strength of the d-wave core state.