Probing time reversal symmetry breaking topological superconductivity in twisted double layer copper oxides with polar Kerr effect


Abstract in English

Recent theoretical work predicted emergence of chiral topological superconducting phase with spontaneously broken time reversal symmetry in a twisted bilayer composed of two high-$T_c$ cuprate monolayers, such as Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+delta}$. Here we identify large intrinsic Hall response that can be probed through the polar Kerr effect measurement as a convenient signature of the $mathcal{T}$-broken phase. Our modelling predicts the Kerr angle $theta_K$ to be in the range of 10-100 $mu$rad, which is a factor of $10^3-10^4$ times larger than what is expected for the leading chiral supercondutor candidate Sr$_2$RuO$_4$. In addition we show that the optical Hall conductivity $sigma_H(omega)$ can be used to distinguish between the topological $d_{x^2-y^2}pm id_{xy}$ phase and the $d_{x^2-y^2}pm is$ phase which is also expected to be present in the phase diagram but is topologically trivial.

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