Landau levels in the mixed state of two-dimensional nodal superconductors: models, featured magneto-optical response and quantized thermal Hall effect

TL;DR

This paper investigates Landau levels in the mixed state of 2D nodal superconductors, revealing conditions for their existence, and predicts distinctive magneto-optical and thermal Hall responses as experimental signatures.

Contribution

It demonstrates that Landau levels form in certain 2D superconducting heterostructures respecting chiral symmetry, expanding understanding beyond Weyl superconductors.

Findings

Landau levels exist in heterostructure Weyl superconductors

Chiral symmetry determines Landau level formation

Predicted peaked magneto-optical and quantized thermal Hall responses

Abstract

Landau quantization of low-energy quasiparticles (QPs) in the mixed state of gapless superconductors is a celebrated problem. So far, the only superconducting system that has been shown to host Landau levels (LLs) of Bogoliubov QPs is the Weyl superconductor. Here, we first investigate the QPs in the mixed state of two Weyl superconductors, an intrinsic one and a heterostructure one, and reveal that the QP states in the former do not form LLs, in contrast to those in the latter where LLs of QPs are shown to exist. The key is whether the low-energy Hamiltonian respects a generalized chiral symmetry. Following the analysis, we show that a twodimensional superconducting system -- a topological insulator-superconductor heterostructure respecting the generalized chiral symmetry -- exhibits LLs with Chern number $\pm 1$ in the mixed state. We also show featured responses resulting from the LLs, including peaked magneto-optical conductivity and quantized thermal Hall conductivity, which could be used as experimental probes to detect LLs in superconductors.