0000000000520398
AUTHOR
Vittorio Cataudella
Spin-orbital polarization of Majorana edge states in oxides nanowires
We investigate a paradigmatic case of topological superconductivity in a one-dimensional nanowire with $d-$orbitals and a strong interplay of spin-orbital degrees of freedom due to the competition of orbital Rashba interaction, atomic spin-orbit coupling, and structural distortions. We demonstrate that the resulting electronic structure exhibits an orbital dependent magnetic anisotropy which affects the topological phase diagram and the character of the Majorana bound states (MBSs). The inspection of the electronic component of the MBSs reveals that the spin-orbital polarization generally occurs along the direction of the applied Zeeeman magnetic field, and transverse to the magnetic and or…
Unveiling signatures of topological phases in open kitaev chains and ladders
In this work, the general problem of the characterization of the topological phase of an open quantum system is addressed. In particular, we study the topological properties of Kitaev chains and ladders under the perturbing effect of a current flux injected into the system using an external normal lead and derived from it via a superconducting electrode. After discussing the topological phase diagram of the isolated systems, using a scattering technique within the Bogoliubov de Gennes formulation, we analyze the differential conductance properties of these topological devices as a function of all relevant model parameters. The relevant problem of implementing local spectroscopic measurement…
Effect of Confinement and Coulomb Interactions on the Electronic Structure of the (111) LaAlO3/SrTiO3 Interface
A tight binding supercell approach is used for the calculation of the electronic structure of the (111) LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface. The confinement potential at the interface is evaluated solving a discrete Poisson equation by means of an iterative method. In addition to the effect of the confinement, local Hubbard electron–electron terms are included at the mean-field level within a fully self-consistent procedure. The calculation carefully describes how the two-dimensional electron gas arises from the quantum confinement of electrons near the interface due to the band bending potential. The resulting electronic sub-bands and Fermi surfaces show full agreement with the electronic structure de…
Effect of confinement and Coulomb interactions on the electronic structure of (111) LaAlO$_3$/SrTiO$_3$ interface
A tight binding supercell approach is used for the calculation of the electronic structure of the (111) LaAlO$_3$/SrTiO$_3$ interface. The confinement potential at the interface is evaluated solving a discrete Poisson equation by means of an iterative method. In addition to the effect of the confinement, local Hubbard electron-electron terms are included at mean-field level within a fully self-consistent procedure. The calculation carefully describes how the two-dimensional electron gas arises from the quantum confinement of electrons near the interface due to band bending potential. The resulting electronic sub-bands and Fermi surfaces show full agreement with the electronic structure dete…
Evolution of topological superconductivity by orbital-selective confinement in oxide nanowires
We determine the optimal conditions to achieve topological superconducting phases having spin-singlet pairing for a planar nanowire with finite lateral width in the presence of an in-plane external magnetic field. We employ a microscopic description that is based on a three-band electronic model including both the atomic spin-orbit coupling and the inversion asymmetric potential at the interface between oxide band-gap insulators. We consider amplitudes of the pairing gap, spin-orbit interactions and electronic parameters that are directly applicable to nanowires of LaAlO$_3$-SrTiO$_3$. The lateral confinement introduces a splitting of the $d$-orbitals that alters the orbital energy hierarch…
Ballistic transport through quantum point contacts of multi-orbital oxides
Linear and non-linear transport properties through an atomic-size point contact based on oxides two-dimensional electron gas is examined using the tight-binding method and the $\mathbf{k\cdot p}$ approach. The ballistic transport is analyzed in contacts realized at the (001) interface between band insulators $LaAlO_3$ and $SrTiO_3$ by using the Landauer-B\"uttiker method for many sub-bands derived from three Ti 3d orbitals ($d_{yz}$, $d_{zx}$ and $d_{xy}$) in the presence of an out-of-plane magnetic field. We focus especially on the role played by the atomic spin-orbit coupling and the inversion symmetry breaking term pointing out three transport regimes: the first, at low energies, involvi…