Related papers: Majorana Fermions: The race continues
Majorana fermions have recently garnered a great attention outside the field of particle physics, in condensed matter physics. In contrast to their particle physics counterparts, Majorana fermions are zero energy, chargeless, spinless,…
We have investigated the possible presence of Majorana fermions in a semiconductor quantum ring containing a few interacting electrons, and a strong spin-orbit interaction, proximity coupled to an s-wave superconductor. We have found that…
After a recent series of rapid and exciting developments, the long search for the Majorana fermion - the elusive quantum entity at the border between particles and antiparticles - has produced the first positive experimental results, but is…
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…
Semiconducting nanowires in proximity to superconductors are promising experimental systems for Majorana fermions which may ultimately be used as building blocks for topological quantum computers. A serious challenge in the experimental…
The 1937 theoretical discovery of Majorana fermions--whose defining property is that they are their own anti-particles--has since impacted diverse problems ranging from neutrino physics and dark matter searches to the fractional quantum…
Motivated by recent proposals for the generation of Majorana fermions in semiconducting hybrid structures, we examine possible experimental fingerprints of such excitations. Whereas previous works mainly have focused on zero-energy states…
We consider different configurations of ac driven quantum dots coupled to superconductor leads where Majorana fermions can exist as collective quasiparticles. The main goal is to tune the existence, localization and properties of these zero…
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…
The search for a Majorana Fermion has been an area of intense interest in condensed matter research of late. This elusive particle, predicted to exist in 1937, has been sought after for both fundamental and practical reasons. On the…
A topological insulator nanowire, proximity-coupled to an ordinary bulk s-wave superconductor and subject to a longitudinal applied magnetic field, is shown to realize a one-dimensional topological superconductor with unpaired Majorana…
Despite extensive experimental efforts over the past two decades, the quest for Majorana fermions in superconductors remains inconclusive. We propose an experimental method that can conclusively confirm, or rule out, the existence of these…
Majorana fermions are predicted to localize at the edge of a topological superconductor, a state of matter that can form when a ferromagnetic system is placed in proximity to a conventional superconductor with strong spin-orbit interaction.…
Realizations of Majorana fermions in solid state materials have attracted great interests recently in connection to topological order and quantum information processing. We propose a novel way to create Majorana fermions in superconductors.…
Zero energy Majorana fermion states (Majoranas) can arise at the ends of a semiconducting wire in proximity with a superconductor. A first generation of experiments has detected a zero bias conductance peak in these systems that strongly…
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…
Majorana fermions exist on the boundaries of two-dimensional topological superconductors (TSCs) as charge-neutral quasi-particles. The neutrality makes the detection of such states challenging from both experimental and theoretical points…
We propose and analyze theoretically an experimental setup for detecting the elusive Majorana particle in semiconductor-superconductor heterostructures. The experimental system consists of one-dimensional semiconductor wire with strong…
We investigate the Majorana fermions in a semiconductor nanostructure with two wires connected through a ring. The nanostructure is mirror symmetric and in the proximity of a superconductor. The Rashba spin-orbit coupling and a magnetic…
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…