Quasi-particle excitations around a half-quantum vortex in p- and f- wave superconductors

Abstract

Triplet superconductors such as Sr 2RuO 4 and Na x CoO 2· yH 2O are now found to be p-wave ( k x ± ik y ) or f-wave (( k x ± ik y )cos ck z ) superconductors. Kee phenomenologically suggested that in these p-wave or f-wave superconductors, two half-quantum vortices (HQVs) become stable. Using Bougoliubov–de Gennes equation with the Fourier-Bessel expansion, we analyze quasi-particle excitations around an HQV at one end of the d-soliton for both p-wave and f-wave superconductors. We find that the bound state peak in the total local density of states around the HQV in f-wave superconductors becomes rather low compared to that around a singly quantized vortex. This is because, when flux and spin of the Cooper pairs are parallel, local density of states of quasi-particles shows bound state at zero energy. On the other hand, when flux and spin are anti-parallel, there is no phase singularity in the order parameter.