CM Seminar - Microscopic evidence for a chiral superconducting order parameter in the heavy fermion superconductor UTe2

Event Date:
2020-11-05T14:00:00
2020-11-05T15:00:00
Event Location:
https://ubc.zoom.us/j/65784122083?pwd=U09vVXJMRzNLaTY3bmVXNEFJZ1k3UT09
Meeting ID: 657 8412 2083
Passcode: 113399
Speaker:
Vidya Madhavan, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Related Upcoming Events:
Intended Audience:
Public
Event Information:

Abstract: Topological superconductors represent a fundamentally new phase of matter. Similar to topological insulators, the non-trivial topological characteristics of a topological superconductor dictate the presence of a topological edge states composed of Bogoliubov quasiparticles which live inside and span the superconducting gap. The intense interest in these materials stems from the fact that Bogoliubov excitations inside the gap of a topological superconductor are predicted to have all the characteristics of Majorana Fermions. A chiral p-wave superconductor which is topologically non-trivial is a natural platform for realizing these Majorana modes. In this talk I present scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) data on the newly discovered heavy fermion superconductor, UTe2 with a TC of 1.6K. I will show signatures of coexisting Kondo effect and superconductivity which show competing spatial modulations within one unit-cell.  STM spectroscopy at step edges show signatures of chiral in-gap states, predicted to exist at the boundaries of a topological superconductor. Combined with existing data indicating triplet pairing, the presence of chiral edge states suggests that UTe2 is a strong candidate material for chiral-triplet topological superconductivity.

 

Add to Calendar 2020-11-05T14:00:00 2020-11-05T15:00:00 CM Seminar - Microscopic evidence for a chiral superconducting order parameter in the heavy fermion superconductor UTe2 Event Information: Abstract: Topological superconductors represent a fundamentally new phase of matter. Similar to topological insulators, the non-trivial topological characteristics of a topological superconductor dictate the presence of a topological edge states composed of Bogoliubov quasiparticles which live inside and span the superconducting gap. The intense interest in these materials stems from the fact that Bogoliubov excitations inside the gap of a topological superconductor are predicted to have all the characteristics of Majorana Fermions. A chiral p-wave superconductor which is topologically non-trivial is a natural platform for realizing these Majorana modes. In this talk I present scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) data on the newly discovered heavy fermion superconductor, UTe2 with a TC of 1.6K. I will show signatures of coexisting Kondo effect and superconductivity which show competing spatial modulations within one unit-cell.  STM spectroscopy at step edges show signatures of chiral in-gap states, predicted to exist at the boundaries of a topological superconductor. Combined with existing data indicating triplet pairing, the presence of chiral edge states suggests that UTe2 is a strong candidate material for chiral-triplet topological superconductivity.   Event Location: https://ubc.zoom.us/j/65784122083?pwd=U09vVXJMRzNLaTY3bmVXNEFJZ1k3UT09 Meeting ID: 657 8412 2083 Passcode: 113399