We consider the proximity effect in a topological insulator (TI) sandwiched between two conventional superconductors by comparing $s$-wave spin singlet superconducting pairing correlations and odd-parity triplet pairing correlations with a zero spin component orthogonal to the slab (“polar” phase). A superconducting gap opens in the Dirac dispersion of the surface states existing at the interfaces. An axial vortex is included, piercing the slab along the normal to the interfaces with the superconductors. It is known that, when proximity is $s$-wave, quasiparticles in the gap are Majorana bound states, localized at opposite interfaces. We report the full expression for the quantum field associated to the midgap neutral fermions, as derived in the two-orbital band model for the TI. When proximity involves odd-parity pairing, midgap modes are charged surface Andreev bound states, and they originate from interfacial circular states of definite chirality, centered at the vortex singularity and decaying in the TI film with oscillations. When the chemical potential is moved away from midgap, extended states along the vortex axis are also allowed. Their orbital structure depends on the symmetry of the bulk band from where the quasiparticle level splits off.

• Received 16 May 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.86.045435