Master thesis on characterizing Superconductor - Weyl Semimetal junctions.

Topological quantum matter has emerged as an exciting field in the last decade. From hosting topologically protected surface states, to possessing potential to for fault tolerant quantum computing, topology has infused a rich physics into conventional band theory. Transport wise, interesting properties reveal when a topological insulator is kept in proximity to superconductor forming a hyrbid structure. In such hybrids, the presence of a magnetic field or a magnetic moment of an adjacent ferromagnet can spawn zero energy Majorana modes, the focus of much of current research in quantum computing.

With this background, this thesis aims to study characteristics of Superconductor - Topological junctions, particularly the effect of surface states on superconducting parameters such as transition temperatures, critical fields. For the time being, we focus on Tc to see how the non-zero density of surface states influences its value, the interplay of coherence length with decay length, and how material aspect ratios influences Tc. By reformulating an older method by de Gennes [1], our approach can possibly yield a simpler methodology to compute Tc as compared to other methods such as quasiclassical green’s function.

Working draft

References

1. P. G. DE GENNES, “Boundary effects in superconductors,” Rev. Mod. Phys., vol. 36, pp. 225–237, Jan 1964. [Online]. Available: https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/RevModPhys.36.225

2. M. Lababidi and E. Zhao, “Microscopic simulation of superconductor/topological insulator proximity structures,” Phys. Rev. B, vol. 83, p. 184511, May 2011. [Online]. Available: https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevB.83.184511