English

Josephson effect in superconducting wires supporting multiple Majorana edge states

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics 2013-03-12 v3

Abstract

We study superconducting-normal-superconducting (SNS) Josephson junctions in one-dimensional topological superconductors which support more than one Majorana end mode. The variation of the energy spectrum with the superconducting phase is investigated by combining numerical diagonalizations of tight-binding models describing the SNS junction together with an analysis of appropriate low-energy effective Hamiltonians. We show that the four pi-periodicity characteristic of the fractional dc Josephson effect is preserved. Additionally, the ideal conductance of a NS junction with a topological supraconductor, hosting two Majorana modes at its ends, is doubled compared to the single Majorana case. Last, we illustrate how a nonzero superconducting phase gradient can potentially destroy the phases supporting multiple Majorana end states.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1211.3070,
  title  = {Josephson effect in superconducting wires supporting multiple Majorana edge states},
  author = {Doru Sticlet and Cristina Bena and Pascal Simon},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1211.3070},
  year   = {2013}
}

Comments

9 pages, 11 figures