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arXiv · 2602.09156

Majorana zero modes in superconductor-magnet heterostructures with d-wave order

Bastien Fajardo·T. Pereg-Barnea·Arun Paramekanti·Kartiek Agarwal
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Abstract

Magnetic skyrmions in proximity to superconductors offer a route to engineering topological superconductivity due to the synthetic spin-orbit coupling engendered by the spin twist of the skyrmion texture. Previous theoretical works show that this leads to Majorana zero modes (MZMs) in skyrmion-vortex pairs for s-wave superconductors. Here we investigate this mechanism in fully gapped d+is and d+id superconductors. We find the surprising result that while stable MZMs are found in large parts of the phase diagram, strongly enhanced d-wave pairing or stronger skyrmion-induced spin twisting can in fact destroy topology unlike in s-wave superconductors. This effect can be understood from the non-trivial spatial structure of the d-wave pairing, and mixing of odd and even angular-momentum pairing channels in a rotated frame which untwists the skyrmion texture. Our results inform the feasibility of realizing MZMs with unconventional superconductors in such heterostructures.

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Bastien Fajardo, T. Pereg-Barnea, Arun Paramekanti, Kartiek Agarwal. 2026-02-09. Majorana zero modes in superconductor-magnet heterostructures with d-wave order. https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.09156

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