Quasiparticle Bound States around Fractional Vortices in s-wave Superconductor

Abstract

Since the experimental formation of a vortex with a fractional quantized magnetic flux in a thin superconducting $s$-wave bi-layer was recently reported, we calculate the local density of states (LDOS) around two half quantum vortices in a $s$-wave superconductor on the basis of the quasiclassical Eilenberger theory to investigate the effect of the phase discontinuity. We show that the LDOS pattern around fractional vortices is qualitatively different from that around conventional vortex. We find that the novel bow-tie-shaped bound states appear in the high energy region, which can be an evidence for the fractional vortices through scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy. We also show that the system with $n$ fractional vortices with the vorticity $1/n$ has a similarity to the Josephson junctions.