Inducing chiral superconductivity on honeycomb lattice systems

TL;DR

This paper investigates how spin-orbit coupling influences chiral superconductivity in honeycomb lattice systems, revealing potential topological phases and edge states through analysis of the Bogolyubov-de Gennes Hamiltonian.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of the interplay between interaction terms and spin-orbit coupling in inducing topological superconducting phases on honeycomb lattices.

Findings

Complex Berry curvatures emerge in the quasiparticle spectrum.

Topological edge states can appear along zigzag edges.

Spin-orbit coupling affects the topological properties of the superconducting state.

Abstract

Superconductivity in graphene-based systems has recently attracted much attention, as either intrinsic behavior or induced by proximity to a superconductor may lead to interesting topological phases and symmetries of the pairing function. A prominent system considers the pairing to have chiral symmetry. The question arises as to the effect of possible spin-orbit coupling on the resulting superconducting quasiparticle spectrum. Utilizing a Bogolyubov-de Gennes (BdG) Hamiltonian, we explore the interplay of different interaction terms in the system, and their role in generating complex Berry curvatures in the quasiparticle spectrum, as well as non-trivial topological behavior. We demonstrate that the topology of the BdG Hamiltonian in these systems may result in the appearance of edge states along the zigzag edges of nanoribbons in the appropriate regime.