Majorana bound states from exceptional points in nontopological superconductors

Recent experimental efforts towards the detection of Majorana bound states have focused on creating the conditions for topological superconductivity. Here we demonstrate an alternative route, which achieves fully localised zero-energy Majorana bound states when a topologically trivial superconductor...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: San-Jose, Pablo, Cayao, Jorge, Prada, Elsa, Aguado, Ramón
Format: article
Publication Date:2016
Country:España
Institution:Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Repository:Biblos-e Archivo. Repositorio Institucional de la UAM
Language:English
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.uam.es:10486/679316
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10486/679316
https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep21427
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Superconducting devices
Topological insulators
Majorana
MDS
Física
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spelling Majorana bound states from exceptional points in nontopological superconductorsSan-Jose, PabloCayao, JorgePrada, ElsaAguado, RamónSuperconducting devicesTopological insulatorsMajoranaMDSFísicaRecent experimental efforts towards the detection of Majorana bound states have focused on creating the conditions for topological superconductivity. Here we demonstrate an alternative route, which achieves fully localised zero-energy Majorana bound states when a topologically trivial superconductor is strongly coupled to a helical normal region. Such a junction can be experimentally realised by e.g. proximitizing a finite section of a nanowire with spin-orbit coupling, and combining electrostatic depletion and a Zeeman field to drive the non-proximitized (normal) portion into a helical phase. Majorana zero modes emerge in such an open system without fine-tuning as a result of chargeconjugation symmetry, and can be ultimately linked to the existence of ‘exceptional points’ (EPs) in parameter space, where two quasibound Andreev levels bifurcate into two quasibound Majorana zero modes. After the EP, one of the latter becomes non-decaying as the junction approaches perfect Andreev reflection, thus resulting in a Majorana dark state (MDS) localised at the NS junction. We show that MDSs exhibit the full range of properties associated to conventional closed-system Majorana bound states (zero-energy, self-conjugation, 4π-Josephson effect and non-Abelian braiding statistics), while not requiring topological superconductivityWe acknowledge the support of the European Research Council and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Innovation through the JAE-Predoc Program (J. C.), Grants No. FIS2011-23713 (P. S.-J), FIS2012-33521 (R. A.), FIS2013-47328 (E.P.) and the Ramon y Cajal Program (E.P. and P.S.-J)Nature Publishing GroupDepartamento de Física de la Materia CondensadaFacultad de Ciencias20162016-02-11research articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_2df8fbb1VoRhttp://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85info:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/10486/679316https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep21427reponame:Biblos-e Archivo. Repositorio Institucional de la UAMinstname:Universidad Autónoma de MadridInglésengopen accesshttp://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:repositorio.uam.es:10486/6793162026-06-23T12:46:27Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Majorana bound states from exceptional points in nontopological superconductors
title Majorana bound states from exceptional points in nontopological superconductors
spellingShingle Majorana bound states from exceptional points in nontopological superconductors
San-Jose, Pablo
Superconducting devices
Topological insulators
Majorana
MDS
Física
title_short Majorana bound states from exceptional points in nontopological superconductors
title_full Majorana bound states from exceptional points in nontopological superconductors
title_fullStr Majorana bound states from exceptional points in nontopological superconductors
title_full_unstemmed Majorana bound states from exceptional points in nontopological superconductors
title_sort Majorana bound states from exceptional points in nontopological superconductors
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv San-Jose, Pablo
Cayao, Jorge
Prada, Elsa
Aguado, Ramón
author San-Jose, Pablo
author_facet San-Jose, Pablo
Cayao, Jorge
Prada, Elsa
Aguado, Ramón
author_role author
author2 Cayao, Jorge
Prada, Elsa
Aguado, Ramón
author2_role author
author
author
dc.contributor.none.fl_str_mv Departamento de Física de la Materia Condensada
Facultad de Ciencias
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Superconducting devices
Topological insulators
Majorana
MDS
Física
topic Superconducting devices
Topological insulators
Majorana
MDS
Física
description Recent experimental efforts towards the detection of Majorana bound states have focused on creating the conditions for topological superconductivity. Here we demonstrate an alternative route, which achieves fully localised zero-energy Majorana bound states when a topologically trivial superconductor is strongly coupled to a helical normal region. Such a junction can be experimentally realised by e.g. proximitizing a finite section of a nanowire with spin-orbit coupling, and combining electrostatic depletion and a Zeeman field to drive the non-proximitized (normal) portion into a helical phase. Majorana zero modes emerge in such an open system without fine-tuning as a result of chargeconjugation symmetry, and can be ultimately linked to the existence of ‘exceptional points’ (EPs) in parameter space, where two quasibound Andreev levels bifurcate into two quasibound Majorana zero modes. After the EP, one of the latter becomes non-decaying as the junction approaches perfect Andreev reflection, thus resulting in a Majorana dark state (MDS) localised at the NS junction. We show that MDSs exhibit the full range of properties associated to conventional closed-system Majorana bound states (zero-energy, self-conjugation, 4π-Josephson effect and non-Abelian braiding statistics), while not requiring topological superconductivity
publishDate 2016
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2016
2016-02-11
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv research article
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_2df8fbb1
VoR
http://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85
dc.type.openaire.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
format article
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv http://hdl.handle.net/10486/679316
https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep21427
url http://hdl.handle.net/10486/679316
https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep21427
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
eng
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
language eng
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv open access
http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
dc.rights.openaire.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv open access
http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Nature Publishing Group
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Nature Publishing Group
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:Biblos-e Archivo. Repositorio Institucional de la UAM
instname:Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
instname_str Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
reponame_str Biblos-e Archivo. Repositorio Institucional de la UAM
collection Biblos-e Archivo. Repositorio Institucional de la UAM
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