English

Universal spin-triplet superconducting correlations of Majorana fermions

Superconductivity 2015-08-05 v2 Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics

Abstract

We establish that Majorana fermions on the boundary of topological superconductors have only spin-triplet superconducting correlations independent of whether the bulk superconducting gap is spin singlet or triplet. This is universal for time-reversal broken (respected) topological superconductors (TSCs) with an odd number of (pairs of) Majorana fermions on the boundary. Consequently, resonant Andreev reflection induced by Majorana fermions only occurs in spin-triplet channels and always injects spin-triplet Cooper pairs into the leads. This spin-triplet condensate results in a spin-orbit coupling (SOC) controlled oscillatory critical current without a 00-π\pi transition in the TSC/SOC-semiconductor/TSC Josephson junction. The observation of this unique current-phase relation can serve as the definitive signal for Majorana fermions. Our study shows a technique for manipulating Majorana fermions based on their spin-triplet superconducting correlations.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1501.07273,
  title  = {Universal spin-triplet superconducting correlations of Majorana fermions},
  author = {Xin Liu and Jay D. Sau and S. Das Sarma},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1501.07273},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

5+4 pages, three figures, replaced with published version