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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…
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…
After the recognition of the possibility to implement Majorana fermions using the building blocks of solid-state matters, the detection of this peculiar particle has been an intense focus of research. Here we experimentally demonstrate a…
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…
Majorana fermions (zero modes) are predicted to emerge in nanowire-superconductor heterostructures. This theoretical prediction typically relies on an oversimplified model, where both the nanowire and the superconductor are idealized as…
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 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…
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…
We theoretically consider the proximity effect in semiconductor-superconductor hybrid nanostructures, which are being extensively studied in the context of the ongoing search for non-Abelian Majorana fermions in solid state systems.…
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…
We investigate numerically the possibility to detect the spatial profile of Majorana fermions (MFs) modeling STM tips that are made of either normal or superconducting material. In both cases, we are able to resolve the localization length…
We present a detailed theoretical study of chiral topological superconductor phases in proximity-superconducting graphene systems based on an effective model inspired by DFT simulations. Inducing s-wave superconductivity to quantum…
Superconductivity in topological materials has drawn a significant interest of the scientific community as these materials provide a hint of the existence of Majorana fermions conceived from the quantized thermal conductivity, a zero-biased…
We study theoretically the role of topological invariants to protect the Majorana fermions in a model of two-dimensional chiral superconductors which belong to class D of topological periodic table. A rich phase diagram is revealed. Each…
The surface of superconducting topological insulators (STIs) has been recognized as an effective $p\pm ip$ superconductivity platform for realizing elusive Majorana fermions. Chiral Majorana modes (CMMs), which are different from Majorana…
A critical overview is given, aimed at non-specialist audience, of the recent efforts to detect and manipulate Majorana fermions in solid state devices. It is argued that the experiments on semiconductor quantum wires proximity coupled to…
We consider a p-wave superconductor wire coupled to two metallic rings. confined to a one-dimensional wire. At the two interface between the the wire and the metallic rings the pairing order parameter vanishes, as result two zero modes…
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 investigate persistent currents in metallic rings interrupted by a Coulomb blockaded topological superconducting segment. We show that the presence of Majorana bound states in the superconductor is reflected in the emergence of an h/e…
The conductance measurement of a half quantized plateau in a quantum anomalous Hall insulator-superconductor structure is reported by a recent experiment [Q. L. He \textit{et al.}, Science 357, 294-299 (2017)], which suggests the existence…