Related papers: Isolating the vortex core Majorana state in p-wave…
Majorana 'zero-modes' are expected to be immune to decoherence. The primary method for their characterization in a 1D topological superconductor, is measuring the tunneling current into the edge of the superconductor. Presently, the…
The existence of edge states and zero energy modes in vortex cores is a hallmark of topologically nontrivial phases realized in various condensed matter systems such as the fractional quantum Hall states, p+ip superconductors, and Z_2…
We propose an experimental setup for detecting a Majorana zero mode consisting of a spinless quantum dot coupled to the end of a p-wave superconducting nanowire. The Majorana bound state at the end of the wire strongly influences the…
Among the different platforms to engineer Majorana fermions in one-dimensional topological superconductors, topological insulator nanowires remain a promising option. Threading an odd number of flux quanta through these wires induces an odd…
The Majorana fermion, which is its own anti-particle and obeys non-abelian statistics, plays a critical role in topological quantum computing. It can be realized as a bound state at zero energy, called a Majorana zero mode (MZM), in the…
The search for Majorana bound state (MBS) has recently emerged as one of the most active research areas in condensed matter physics, fueled by the prospect of using its non-Abelian statistics for robust quantum computation. A highly…
We theoretically study physical properties of the low-energy quasiparticle excitations at the vortex core in the full-gap superconducting state of the Kondo lattice coupled to compensated metals. Based on the mean-field description of the…
Spin-orbit coupled semiconductor nanowires with Zeeman splitting in proximity contact with bulk $s$-wave superconductivity have recently been proposed as a promising platform for realizing Majorana fermions. However, in this setup the…
It is predicted that a vortex in a topological superconductor contains a Majorana zero mode (MZM). The confirmative Majorana signature, i.e., the $2e^2/h$ quantized conductance, however is easily sabotaged by unavoidable interruptions, e.g.…
The excitation gap above the Majorana fermion (MF) modes at the ends of 1D topological superconducting (TS) semiconductor wires scales with the bulk quasiparticle gap E_{qp}. This gap, also called minigap, facilitates experimental detection…
A vortex in an s-wave superconductor with a surface Dirac cone can trap a Majorana bound state with zero energy leading to a zero-bias peak (ZBP) of tunneling conductance. The iron-based superconductor FeTe$_x$Se$_{1-x}$ is one of the…
This is a colloquium-style introduction to the midgap excitations in superconductors known as Majorana fermions. These elusive particles, equal to their own antiparticle, may or may not exist in Nature as elementary building blocks, but in…
We theoretically study superconducting islands based on semiconductor-nanowire Josephson junctions and take into account the presence of subgap quasiparticle excitations in the spectrum of the junction. Our method extends the standard model…
We investigate the properties of electron states localized at the edge of a superconducting island placed on the surface of a topological insulator in a magnetic field. In such systems, Majorana fermions emerge if an odd number of vortices…
Certain types of topological superconductors and superfluids are known to host protected Majorana zero modes in cores of Abrikosov vortices. When such vortices are arranged in a dense periodic lattice one expects zero modes from neighboring…
We propose a route for pinning zero-field superconducting vortices in systems which are exchange-coupled to magnetic islands and feature Rashba spin-orbit coupling. We consider islands with sizes which greatly exceed those of the vortex…
We study the effect of thermal fluctuations on the topological stability of chiral p-wave superconductors. We consider two models of superconductors: spinless and spinful with a focus on topological properties and Majorana zero-energy…
The helical electron states on the surface of topological insulators or elemental Bismuth become unstable toward superconducting pairing formation when coupled to the charge or magnetic fluctuations. The latter gives rise to pairing…
Recent tunneling spectroscopy experiments in semiconducting nanowires with proximity-induced superconductivity have reported robust zero-bias conductance peaks. Such a feature can be compatible with the existence of topological Majorana…
A spatially oscillating pair potential $\Delta(r)=\Delta_0 e^{2i K\cdot r}$ with momentum $K>\Delta_0/\hbar v$ drives a deconfinement transition of the Majorana bound states in the vortex cores of a Fu-Kane heterostructure (a 3D topological…