Surface states and local spin susceptibility in doped three-dimensional topological insulators with odd-parity superconducting pairing symmetry

Abstract

We investigate characteristic features in the spin response of doped three-dimensional topological insulators with odd-parity unequal-spin superconducting pairing, which are predicted to have gapless Majorana surface modes. These Majorana modes contribute to the local spin susceptibility, giving rise to a characteristic temperature behavior of the Knight shift and the spin-lattice relaxation time in magnetic resonance experiments. Because of their different decay lengths, the Majorana modes can be observed and clearly distinguished from the Dirac modes of the topological insulator by local probes which allow for a depth-controlled study of the electron spins on the nanometer length scale.