Topological defect states in mesoscopic chiral p-wave superconducting rectangles

Abstract

In the framework of the microscopic Bogoliubov-de Gennes theory, we investigate the topological defect states in mesoscopic chiral p-wave superconducting rectangles. In the absence of applied magnetic field, stable multi-domain-wall states containing two or more domain walls can be obtained with the increase of the aspect ratio of the rectangle at zero temperature. When the external field is applied, the multi-domain-wall state can only be found as the ground state at finite flux. Interestingly, a hybrid state consisting of two domain walls and one centered vortex tends to emerge as the zero-field ground state of the rectangular system. For enlarged applied flux, several coreless skyrmionic states with different enclosed structures of domain walls as well as the half-quantum vortex-antivortex pair can appear in the present sample.