Calculations of in-gap states of ferromagnetic spin chains on \textit{s}-wave wide-band superconductors

TL;DR

This paper develops a comprehensive theoretical framework for magnetic impurity chains on wide-band s-wave superconductors, enabling better comparison with experiments and analysis of topological phases and edge states.

Contribution

It introduces a wide-band normal metal-based theory using free-electron Green's functions, overcoming limitations of previous approximations and including Rashba coupling effects.

Findings

Analytical solutions for infinite-chain properties.

Validation of finite-chain calculations converging to the infinite limit.

Comparison with recent experimental results on topological phases.

Abstract

Magnetic impurities create in-gap states on superconductors. Recent experiments explore the topological properties of one-dimensional arrays of magnetic impurities on superconductors, because in certain regimes p-wave pairing can be locally induced leading to new topological phases. A by-product of the new accessible phases is the appearance of zero-energy edge states that have non-Abelian exchange properties and can be used for topological quantum computation. Despite the large amount of theory devoted to these systems, most treatments use approximations that render their applicability limited when comparing with usual experiments of 1-D impurity arrays on wide-band superconductors. These approximations either involve tight-binding-like approximations where the impurity energy scales match the minute energy scale of the superconducting gap and are many times unrealistic, or they assume strongly-bound in-gap states. Here, we present a theory for s-wave superconductors based on a wide-band normal metal, with any possible energy scale for the magnetic impurities. The theory is based on free-electron Green's functions. We include Rashba coupling and compare with recent experimental results, permitting us to analyze the topological phases and the experimental edge states. The infinite-chain properties can be analytically obtained, giving us a way to compare with finite-chain calculations. We show that it is possible to converge to the infinite limit by doing finite numerical calculation, paving the way for numerical calculations not based on analytical Green's functions.