English

Topologically protected charge transfer along the edge of a chiral $\textit{p}$-wave superconductor

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics 2015-10-20 v3

Abstract

The Majorana fermions propagating along the edge of a topological superconductor with px+ipyp_x+ip_y pairing deliver a shot noise power of 12×e2/h\frac{1}{2}\times e^2/h per eV of voltage bias. We calculate the full counting statistics of the transferred charge and find that it becomes trinomial in the low-temperature limit, distinct from the binomial statistics of charge-ee transfer in a single-mode nanowire or charge-2e2e transfer through a normal-superconductor interface. All even-order correlators of current fluctuations have a universal quantized value, insensitive to disorder and decoherence. These electrical signatures are experimentally accessible, because they persist for temperatures and voltages large compared to the Thouless energy.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1505.06744,
  title  = {Topologically protected charge transfer along the edge of a chiral $\textit{p}$-wave superconductor},
  author = {N. V. Gnezdilov and B. van Heck and M. Diez and Jimmy A. Hutasoit and C. W. J. Beenakker},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1505.06744},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

5 pages, 4 figures. v3 [post-publication]: added an appendix on the effect of a tunnel barrier at the normal-superconductor contact