Quasiparticle interference in two-dimensional topological crystalline superconductors

National Lab of Solid State Microstructures and Department of Physics, Nanjing University - Nanjing, 210093, China

Received: 18 October 2017
Accepted: 18 December 2017

Abstract

Quasiparticle interference (QPI) caused by impurity (elastic) scattering has provided a notable tool for revealing the topological superconducting gap and its symmetry. Here, we extend this method to the many-impurities scattering case and study the many-impurities QPI patterns for the interfaced bilayer Rashba topological superconductors, which possess intriguing Majorana Ising anisotropy under the magnetic field. For three possible pairing symmetry potentials, hosting the helical Majorana edge states, the unique features associated with Majorana Ising spin are identified in the QPI patterns, whose prominent features are still robust for many-impurities scattering. We show that the distinct scattering structures and symmetry properties of the QPI patterns can be used to uniquely identify the pairing symmetry and the corresponding direction of Majorana Ising spin, which are very distinguishable experimentally.