Related papers: Majorana fermions in superconducting nanowires wit…
We propose a new mechanism for topological superconductivity based on an antiferromagnetically ordered chain of magnetic atoms on the surface of a conventional superconductor. In a weak Zeeman field, a supercurrent in the substrate…
Majorana fermions are particles identical to their own antiparticles. They have been theoretically predicted to exist in topological superconductors. We report electrical measurements on InSb nanowires contacted with one normal (Au) and one…
Quantum wires subject to the combined action of spin-orbit and Zeeman coupling in the presence of \emph{s}-wave pairing potentials (superconducting proximity effect in semiconductors or superfluidity in cold atoms) are one of the most…
In a variety of rare-earth based compounds singlet superconductivity coexists with helical magnetism. Here we demonstrate that surfaces of these systems should generically host a finite density of zero-energy Majorana modes. In the limit of…
We study both analytically and numerically the role of orbital effects caused by a magnetic field applied along the axis of a semiconducting Rashba nanowire in the topological regime hosting Majorana fermions. We demonstrate that the…
Heavy metals, such as Au, Ag, and Pb, often have sharp surface states that are split by strong Rashba spin-orbit coupling. The strong spin-orbit coupling and two-dimensional nature of these surface states make them ideal platforms for…
We consider a model of ballistic quasi-one dimensional semiconducting wire with intrinsic spin-orbit interaction placed on the surface of a bulk s-wave superconductor (SC), in the presence of an external magnetic field. This setup has been…
We study the low-energy bandstructure of armchair and small-bandgap semiconducting carbon nanotubes with proximity-induced superconducting pairing when a spiral magnetic field creates strong effective spin-orbit interactions from the Zeeman…
We theoretically consider the effect of a spatially periodic modulation of the superconducting order parameter on the formation of Majorana fermions induced by a one-dimensional system with magnetic impurities brought into close proximity…
Proposals for realizing Majorana fermions in condensed matter systems typically rely on magnetic fields, which degrade the proximitizing superconductor and plague the Majoranas' detection. We propose an alternative scheme to realize…
Motivated by recent experiments searching for Majorana fermions (MFs) in hybrid semiconducting-superconducting nanostructures, we consider a realistic tight-binding model and analyze its transport behavior numerically. In particular, we…
We theoretically study transport properties of nanowires with the Dresselhaus [110] spin-orbit coupling under the in-plane Zeeman potential and the proximity-induced s-wave pair potential. In the topologically nontrivial phase, the nanowire…
We study the proximity effect between an s-wave superconductor and the surface states of a strong topological insulator. The resulting two dimensional state resembles a spinless p_x+ip_y superconductor, but does not break time reversal…
It has been shown previously that a finite-length topological insulator nanowire, proximity-coupled to an ordinary bulk s-wave superconductor and subject to a longitudinal applied magnetic field, realizes a one-dimensional topological…
The experimental realization of Majorana fermions presents an important problem due to their non-Abelian nature and potential exploitation for topological quantum computation. Very recently Sau et al. [arXiv:0907.2239] demonstrated that a…
The pursuit for Majorana fermions is one of the top priorities in condensed matter physics at the moment. In this work we propose a new method of fabricating Majorana Josephson devices in systems with a weak or no spin-orbit coupling and…
Magnetic skyrmions are nanoscale spin configurations that can be efficiently created and manipulated. They hold great promises for next-generation spintronics applications. In parallel to these developments, the interplay of magnetism,…
We study hybrid superconducting-semiconducting nanowires in the presence of Rashba spin-orbit interaction as well as helical magnetic fields. We show that the interplay between them leads to a competition of phases with two topological gaps…
We investigate the formation of Majorana fermions in finite-size graphene strips with open boundary conditions in both directions, in the presence of an in-plane magnetic field and in the proximity of a superconducting substrate. We show…
We report on several low temperature experiments supporting the presence of Majorana fermions in superconducting lead nanowires fabricated with a scanning tunneling microscope. These nanowires are the connecting bridges between the STM tip…