High-Throughput Investigations of Topological and Nodal Superconductors

Authors

Feng Tang, Seishiro Ono, Xiangang Wan, and Haruki Watanabe

Abstract
The theory of symmetry indicators has enabled database searches for topological materials in normal conducting phases, which has led to several encyclopedic topological material databases. To date, such a database for topological superconductors is yet to be achieved because of the lack of information about pairing symmetries of realistic materials. In this Letter, sidestepping this issue, we tackle an alternative problem: the predictions of topological and nodal superconductivity in materials for each single-valued representation of point groups. Based on recently developed symmetry indicators for superconductors, we provide comprehensive mappings from pairing symmetries to the topological or nodal superconducting nature for nonmagnetic materials listed in the Inorganic Crystal Structure Database. We quantitatively show that around 90% of computed materials are topological or nodal superconductors when a pairing that belongs to a one-dimensional nontrivial representation of point groups is assumed. When materials are representation-enforced nodal superconductors, positions and shapes of the nodes are also identified. When combined with experiments, our results will help us understand the pairing mechanism and facilitate realizations of the long-sought Majorana fermions promising for topological quantum computations.


Physical Review Letters：https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.129.027001