Topological state engineering by potential impurities on chiral superconductors

TL;DR

This paper explores how potential impurities on two-dimensional chiral superconductors can be used to engineer topological states, expanding the methods for creating phases with different Chern numbers without magnetic impurities.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach of using non-magnetic potential impurity lattices to induce topological phases in chiral superconductors, avoiding magnetic impurity complexities.

Findings

Potential impurity lattices can induce topological phases with various Chern numbers.

The method applies specifically to chiral $p$-wave superconductors.

It broadens the toolkit for topological state engineering in superconducting materials.

Abstract

In this work we consider the influence of potential impurities deposited on top of two-dimensional chiral superconductors. As discovered recently, magnetic impurity lattices on an $s$-wave superconductor may give rise to a rich topological phase diagram. We show that similar mechanism takes place in chiral superconductors decorated by non-magnetic impurities, thus avoiding the delicate issue of magnetic ordering of adatoms. We illustrate the method by presenting the theory of potential impurity lattices embedded on chiral $p$-wave superconductors. While a prerequisite for the topological state engineering is a chiral superconductor, the proposed procedure results in vistas of nontrivial descendant phases with different Chern numbers.