Kramer-Pesch effect in chiral p-wave superconductors

Abstract

The pair-potential and current density around a single vortex of the two-dimensional chiral p-wave superconductor with ${\mib d}={\mib z}(p_x \pm \iu p_y)$ are determined self-consistently within the quasiclassical theory of superconductivity. Shrinking of the vortex core at low temperatures are considered numerically and analytically. Temperature-dependences of the spatial variation of pair-potential and circular current around the core and density of states at zero energy are the same as those in the isotropic s-wave case. When the senses of vorticity and chirality are opposite, however, we find two novel results; 1) the scattering rate due to non-magnetic impurities is considerably suppressed, compared to that in the s-wave vortex. From this observation, we expect that the chiral p-wave superconductors provide the best chance to observe the shrinking of the vortex ("Kramer-Pesch effect") experimentally. 2) The pair-potential of chiral p-wave superconductors inside vortex core recovers a combined time-reversal-Gauge symmetry, although this symmetry is broken in the region far from the vortex core. This local recovery of symmetry leads to the suppression of the impurity effect inside vortex core.