Lifetime of edge modes at rough surfaces of chiral superconductors

TL;DR

This paper investigates how diffuse surface scattering affects edge modes in 2D chiral superconductors, revealing that higher angular momentum states are more susceptible to broadening, while p-wave states remain robust.

Contribution

It introduces a unified quasiclassical framework using random S-matrix theory to analyze surface scattering effects on edge modes across different chiral states.

Findings

Higher angular momentum chiral states have larger edge mode broadening.

Single edge mode p-wave states are robust against diffuse scattering.

Diffuse scattering causes significant SDOS broadening, especially in multi-branch edge modes.

Abstract

We study the effect of diffuse surface scattering on the edge modes in two-dimensional chiral superconductors with time-reversal symmetry-breaking Cooper pairs, each carrying angular momentum $m \hbar$ ($m = 1,2,3, \cdots$). To elucidate the diffuse scattering effect, we formulate the inverse lifetime $\Gamma = \hbar/\tau$ corresponding to the broadening of the surface density of states (SDOS) for the edge mode. This derivation uses random S-matrix theory, which allows us to describe the surface effect in a unified way from the specular to the diffuse limit within the quasiclassical theory framework of superconductivity. We find that $\Gamma$ in the chiral states with $m \geq 2$ is larger than that in the chiral $p$-wave state ($m = 1$) because of the multiple edge mode branches in former superconducting states (the number of which equals $m$). Diffuse scattering between the different branches causes a significant broadening of SDOS. In contrast, the edge mode in the chiral $p$-wave state is robust to diffuse scattering because only a single edge mode branch exists. We also discuss SDOS at the diffuse limit, where the description in terms of $\Gamma$ is not useful. The diffuse scattering effect on SDOS can be understood qualitatively in terms of destructive interference analogous to that caused by impurity scattering in unconventional superconductors.