Topological s-wave pairing superconductivity with spatial inhomogeneity: Mid-gap-state appearance and robustness of superconductivity

TL;DR

This paper investigates the effects of spatial inhomogeneity on topological s-wave superconductors, revealing how mid-gap states emerge and persist, especially under high magnetic fields, due to the mixture of p-wave and s-wave characteristics.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of mid-gap state formation in 2D topological s-wave superconductors with inhomogeneity, introducing an effective theory for high magnetic fields.

Findings

Mid-gap states are linked to surface modes in topological phases.

Impurities induce mid-gap quasiparticles more easily at higher magnetic fields.

Effective gap exhibits a mixture of chiral p-wave and s-wave characters.

Abstract

We study the quasiparticle spectrum of 2D topological $s$-wave superconductors with the Zeeman magnetic field and the Rashba spin-orbit coupling in the presence of spatial inhomogeneity. Solving the real-space Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations, we focus on the excitations within the superconducting gap amplitude, i.e., the appearance of mid-gap states. Two kinds of potential functions, line-type (a chain of impurities) and point-type (a single impurity) ones are examined to take spatial inhomogeneity into account. The line setting shows a link of the mid-gap states with the gapless surface modes indicated by the bulk-boundary correspondence in topological superfluid. The point one shows that the quasiparticles with mid-gap energy are much easily excited by an impurity when the Zeeman magnetic field increases within the topological number to be unchanged. Thus, we obtain insights into the robustness of a topological superconductor against non-magnetic impurities. Moreover, we derive an effective theory applicable to high magnetic fields. The effective gap is the mixture of the chiral $p$-wave and $s$-wave characters. The former is predominant when the magnetic field increases. Therefore, we claim that a chiral $p$-wave character of the effective gap function creates the mid-gap states.