Supercurrent as a bulk probe for topological phase

Abstract

Distinguishing trivial from topological superconducting phase remains a central and contested experimental challenge, since most existing probes infer the bulk phase transition indirectly, from boundary signatures that can be sensitive to local physics. Here, we propose an alternative that probes the bulk topological phase and is based on supercurrent response. We study a one-dimensional Rashba spin-orbit-coupled superconducting nanowire with an applied magnetic field that opens a topological gap. We show that for strong spin-orbit coupling, the superfluid stiffness, and consequently the supercurrent, is suppressed by a factor of two inside the topological phase, producing a non-monotonic signature of the bulk phase transition as a function of chemical potential. We further use a low-energy helical model to understand this suppression analytically. Our results show that the bulk topological phase transition can be detected through kinetic inductance measurements.