DC-current induced domain wall in a chiral $p$-wave superconductor

Abstract

We study theoretically the impact of an applied DC-current on a mesoscopic chiral $p$-wave superconductor. Performing quasiclassical calculations on a two-dimensional system, with an external magnetic flux to generate a DC current, we show that the current can trigger a transition to a state with a domain wall between regions of different chiralities. The system shows an hysteretic behavior, as different domain wall configurations are possible for a given current. This domain wall creation mechanism can give new insights on recent experiments observing anomalous current variations in Sr${}_2$RuO${}_4$ junctions.