English

Majorana fermions from Landau quantization in a superconductor--topological-insulator hybrid structure

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics 2013-05-14 v1

Abstract

We show that the interplay of cyclotron motion and Andreev reflection experienced by massless-Dirac-like charge carriers in topological-insulator surface states generates a Majorana-particle excitation. Based on an envelope-function description of the Dirac-Andreev edge states, we discuss the kinematic properties of the Majorana mode and find them to be possible to be tuned by changing the superconductor's chemical potential and/or the magnitude of the perpendicular magnetic field. Our proposal opens up new possibilities for studying Majorana fermions in a controllable setup.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1210.4057,
  title  = {Majorana fermions from Landau quantization in a superconductor--topological-insulator hybrid structure},
  author = {Rakesh P. Tiwari and U. Zülicke and C. Bruder},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1210.4057},
  year   = {2013}
}

Comments

8 pages, 6 figures