Coreless vortices as direct signature of chiral $d$-wave superconductivity

Abstract

Chiral $d$-wave superconductivity has been proposed in a number of different materials, but characteristic experimental fingerprints have been largely lacking. We show that quadruply quantized coreless vortices are prone to form and offer distinctive signatures of the chiral $d$-wave state in both the local density of states and the total magnetic moment. Their dissimilarity in positive versus negative magnetic fields further leads to additional spontaneous symmetry breaking, producing clear evidence of time-reversal symmetry breaking, chiral superconductivity, and the Chern number.