First- and Second-Order Topological Superconductivity and Temperature-Driven Topological Phase Transitions in the Extended Hubbard Model with Spin-Orbit Coupling

Majid Kheirkhah, Zhongbo Yan, Yuki Nagai, and Frank Marsiglio
Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 017001 – Published 30 June 2020
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Abstract

The combination of spin-orbit coupling with interactions results in many exotic phases of matter. In this Letter, we investigate the superconducting pairing instability of the two-dimensional extended Hubbard model with both Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling within the mean-field level at both zero and finite temperature. We find that both first- and second-order time-reversal symmetry breaking topological gapped phases can be achieved under appropriate parameters and temperature regimes due to the presence of a favored even-parity s+id-wave pairing even in the absence of an external magnetic field or intrinsic magnetism. This results in two branches of chiral Majorana edge states on each edge or a single zero-energy Majorana corner state at each corner of the sample. Interestingly, we also find that not only does tuning the doping level lead to a direct topological phase transition between these two distinct topological gapped phases, but also using the temperature as a highly controllable and reversible tuning knob leads to different direct temperature-driven topological phase transitions between gapped and gapless topological superconducting phases. Our findings suggest new possibilities in interacting spin-orbit coupled systems by unifying both first- and higher-order topological superconductors in a simple but realistic microscopic model.

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  • Received 23 January 2020
  • Accepted 2 June 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.017001

© 2020 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Majid Kheirkhah1,*, Zhongbo Yan2, Yuki Nagai3,4, and Frank Marsiglio1

  • 1Department of Physics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E1, Canada
  • 2School of Physics, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China
  • 3CCSE, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, 178-4-4, Wakashiba, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-0871, Japan
  • 4Mathematical Science Team, RIKEN Center for Advanced Intelligence Project (AIP), 1-4-1 Nihonbashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 103-0027, Japan

  • *Corresponding author. kheirkhah@ualberta.ca

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Issue

Vol. 125, Iss. 1 — 3 July 2020

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