Critical field measure for topological superconductivity

Abstract

A promising direction for harnessing the laws of quantum mechanics to perform quantum computation is the topological quantum computation, for which topological superconductivity is one of the physical platforms. Intensive theoretical studies have been carried out and followed by tremendous experimental efforts in the realization of topological superconductivity, though debates remain mainly because of the inadequacy of the convincing detection techniques. Here we report a theoretical finding in a superconductor with surface or edge states, where the critical field is found to obey the unique power-law temperature dependence $B_{c3}\sim (T_c-T)^{\gamma}$ with $T_c$ being the onset critical temperature of superconductivity and the fractional exponent $\gamma= 2/3$, differing from the conventional values of $\gamma=1/2$ and $1$. The topological surface superconductivity is hence expected in the three-dimensional (3D) system and the topological edge superconductivity in the two-dimensional (2D) system. The application of this measure to the intrinsic topological superconductors FeTe$_{1-x}$Se$_{x}$ ($x\sim 0.5$) supports the validity of such an accessible, convenient, and reliable transport technique for the identification of topological superconductivity. The new form of theory on topological superconductivity together with the developed identification technique is expected to guide the search of topological superconductors in future.