Spin-Nernst Effect in Time-Reversal-Invariant Topological Superconductors

Taiki Matsushita, Jiei Ando, Yusuke Masaki, Takeshi Mizushima, Satoshi Fujimoto, and Ilya Vekhter

Phys. Rev. Lett. 128, 097001 – Published 4 March 2022

Abstract

We investigate the spin-Nernst effect in time-reversal-invariant topological superconductors, and show that it provides smoking-gun evidence for helical Cooper pairs. The spin-Nernst effect stems from asymmetric, in spin space, scattering of quasiparticles at nonmagnetic impurities, and generates a transverse spin current by the temperature gradient. Both the sign and the magnitude of the effect sensitively depend on the scattering phase shift at impurity sites. Therefore the spin-Nernst effect is uniquely suitable for identifying time-reversal-invariant topological superconducting orders.

Received 1 October 2021
Accepted 5 February 2022

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.097001

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Cooper pairs Nernst effect Superconductivity Superfluidity Topological phases of matter Topological superconductors Transport phenomena

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Taiki Matsushita ¹, Jiei Ando ¹, Yusuke Masaki ², Takeshi Mizushima¹, Satoshi Fujimoto^1,3, and Ilya Vekhter⁴

¹Department of Materials Engineering Science, Osaka University, Toyonaka, Osaka 560-8531, Japan
²Department of Applied Physics, Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8578, Japan
³Center for Quantum Information and Quantum Biology, Osaka University, Toyonaka, Osaka 560-8531, Japan
⁴Department of Physics and Astronomy, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803-4001, USA