Observation of Persistent Zero Modes and Superconducting Vortex Doublets in UTe2

作者：Nileema Sharma, Matthew Toole, J. Douglas McKenzie, Fang-Jun Cheng, Mitchell M. Bordelon, S. M. Thomas, P. F. S. Rosa, Yi‐Ting Hsu, Xiaolong Liu · 发表于：ACS Nano · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1021/acsnano.5c08406 · 被引用次数：5 · 研究领域：Rare-earth and actinide compounds、Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism、Advanced Condensed Matter Physics

Superconducting vortices can reveal electron pairing details and nucleate topologically protected states. Yet, vortices of bulk spin-triplet superconductors have never been visualized at the atomic scale. Recently, UTe 2 has emerged as a prime spin-triplet superconductor, but its superconducting order parameter is elusive, and whether time-reversal symmetry (TRS) is broken remains unsettled. Here, we visualize vortices on the (011) surface of ultraclean UTe 2 single crystals ( T c = 2.1 K) using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). We introduce d 2 I d V 2 imaging as an effective technique for vortex visualization in superconductors with substantial residual zero-energy density of states (DOS), as in UTe 2 . Anisotropic single-flux-quantum vortices, with coherence lengths of ∼12 nm (4 nm) parallel (perpendicular) to the a -axis, form a triangular vortex lattice (VL) under a small out-of-plane magnetic field. The invariance of vortex structures and VL under changes of field polarity and cooling history strongly supports time-reversal invariant superconductivity under zero field. At vortex cores (VCs), nonsplit, spectrally sharp zero-bias conductance peaks (ZBPs) persist up 8 T that are consistent with symmetry-protected Majorana zero modes (MZMs) in a topological vortex line. Close examination of vortex structures reveals a mirror-asymmetric doublet─one with ZBPs and another with an enhanced apparent gap, possibly originating from a field-induced multicomponent order parameter...