Anomalous Nonlocal Conductance as a Fingerprint of Chiral Majorana Edge States.

A chiral p-wave superconductor is the primary example of topological systems hosting chiral Majorana edge states. Although candidate materials exist, the conclusive signature of chiral Majorana edge states has not yet been observed in experiments. Here, we propose a smoking-gun experiment to detect the chiral Majorana edge states on the basis of theoretical results for the nonlocal conductance in a device consisting of a chiral p-wave superconductor and two ferromagnetic leads. The chiral nature of Majorana edge states causes an anomalously long-range and chirality-sensitive nonlocal transport in these junctions. These two drastic features enable us to identify the moving direction of chiral Majorana edge states in the single experimental setup.

Unconventional surface impedance of a normal-metal film covering a spin-triplet superconductor due to odd-frequency cooper pairs.

We discuss the dynamic response of odd-frequency Cooper pairs to an electromagnetic field. By using the quasiclassical Green function method, we calculate the impedance (Z=R-iX) of a normal-metal thin film which covers a superconductor. In contrast with the standard relation (i.e., R≪X), the impedance in spin-triplet proximity structures shows anomalous behavior (i.e., R>X) in the low frequency limit. This unusual relation is a result of the penetration of odd-frequency pairs into the normal metal and reflects the negative Cooper pair density.

Tunneling between two helical superconductors via Majorana edge channels.

We discuss electric transport through a point contact which bridges Majorana fermion modes appearing at edges of two helical superconductors. The contents focus on the effects of interference and interaction unique to the Majorana fermions and the role of spin-orbit interaction (SOI). Besides the Josephson current, the quasiparticle conductance depends sensitively on the phase difference and relative helicity between the two superconductors. The interaction among the Majorana fermions causes the power-law temperature dependences of conductance for various tunneling channels. Especially, in the presence of SOI, the conductance always increases as the temperature is lowered.

Josephson pi state in a ferromagnetic insulator.

We predict anomalous atomic-scale 0-pi transitions in a Josephson junction with a ferromagnetic-insulator (FI) barrier. The ground state of such junction alternates between 0 and pi states when thickness of FI is increasing by a single atomic layer. We find that the mechanism of the 0-pi transition can be attributed to thickness-dependent phase shifts between the wave numbers of electrons and holes in FI. Based on these results, we show that a stable pi state can be realized in junctions based on high-T{c} superconductors with a La2BaCuO5 barrier.

Luminescence of a cooper pair.

This Letter theoretically discusses the photon emission spectra of a superconducting p-n junction. On the basis of the second order perturbation theory for electron-photon interaction, we show that the recombination of a Cooper pair with two p-type carriers causes enhancement of the luminescence intensity. The calculated results of photon emission spectra explain characteristic features of observed signal in an recent experiment. Our results indicate high functionalities of superconducting light-emitting devices.

Anomalous transport through the p-wave superconducting channel in the 3-K phase of Sr2rRuO4.

Using microfabrication techniques, we extracted individual channels of 3-kelvin (3-K) phase superconductivity in Sr2RuO4-Ru eutectic systems and confirmed odd-parity superconductivity in the 3-K phase, similar to pure Sr2RuO4. Unusual hysteresis in the differential resistance-current and voltage-current characteristics observed below 2 K indicates the internal degrees of freedom of the superconducting state. A possible origin of the hysteresis is current-induced chiral-domain-wall motion due to the chiral p-wave state.

Conductance spectroscopy of spin-triplet superconductors.

We propose a novel experiment to identify the symmetry of superconductivity on the basis of theoretical results for differential conductance of a normal metal connected to a superconductor. The proximity effect from the superconductor modifies the conductance of the remote current depending remarkably on the pairing symmetry: spin singlet or spin triplet. The clear-cut difference in the conductance is explained by symmetry of Cooper pairs in a normal metal with respect to frequency. In the spin-triplet case, the anomalous transport is realized due to an odd-frequency symmetry of Cooper pairs.

Josephson effect due to odd-frequency pairs in diffusive half metals.

Motivated by a recent experiment [Keizer et al., Nature (London) 439, 825 (2006)], we study the Josephson effect in superconductor/diffusive half metal/superconductor junctions using the recursive Green function method. The spin-flip scattering at the junction interfaces opens the Josephson channel of the odd-frequency spin-triplet Cooper pairs. As a consequence, the local density of states in a half metal has a large peak at the Fermi energy. Therefore the odd-frequency pairs can be detected experimentally by using the scanning tunneling spectroscopy.

Theory of tunneling spectroscopy in the Larkin-Ovchinnikov state.

We present a theory of tunneling spectroscopy for normal metal/Larkin-Ovchinnikov state junctions in which the spatial periodic modulation in the pair potential amplitude is taken into account. The tunneling spectra show the characteristic line shapes reflecting the minigap structures under the periodic pair potentials depending on the boundary condition of the pair potentials at the junction interface. These features are qualitatively different from the tunneling spectra of the Fulde-Ferrell state. We propose an experimental setup which identifies the superconducting state of CeCoIn5.

Anomalous Josephson effect in p-wave dirty junctions.

The Josephson effect in p-wave superconductor/diffusive normal metal/p-wave superconductor junctions is studied theoretically. Amplitudes of Josephson currents are several orders of magnitude larger than those in s-wave junctions. Current-phase (J-phi) relations in low temperatures are close to those in ballistic junctions such as J proportional to sin(phi/2) and J proportional to phi even in the presence of random impurity potentials. A cooperative effect between the midgap Andreev resonant states and the proximity effect causes such anomalous properties and is a character of the spin-triplet superconductor junctions.