Topologically trivial zero-bias conductance peak in semiconductor Majorana wires from boundary effects

2013/03/31 by Dibyendu Roy, Nilanjan Bondyopadhaya, Sumanta Tewari · 7 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Condensed Matter Physics #Condensed matter physics #Conductance #Dirac fermion #Fermion #MAJORANA #Magnetic field #Majorana fermion #Physics #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #Quantum mechanics #Superconductivity #Topological Materials and Phenomena #Zeeman effect #cond-mat.mes-hall #cond-mat.supr-con

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.88.020502

published as Phys. Rev. B 88, 020502(R) (2013)

openalex publication_date 2013/07/08 · arxiv created 2013/07/15 · arxiv updated 2015/06/15 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

We show that a topologically trivial zero-bias conductance peak is produced in semiconductor-superconductor hybrid structures due to a suppressed superconducting pair potential and/or an excess Zeeman field at the ends of the heterostructure, both of which can occur in experiments. The zero-bias peak (ZBP) (a) appears above a threshold parallel bulk Zeeman field, (b) is stable for a range of bulk field before splitting, (c) disappears with rotation of the bulk Zeeman field, and (d) is robust to weak disorder fluctuations. The topologically trivial ZBPs are also expected to produce splitting oscillations with the applied field similar to those from Majorana fermions. Because of such strong similarity with the phenomenology expected from Majorana fermions, we find that the only unambiguous way to distinguish these trivial ZBPs (of height 4e²/h) from those arising from Majorana fermions (of height 2e²/h) is by comparing the (zero-temperature) peak height and/or through an interference experiment.

Citations

• Signatures of Majorana fermions in hybrid superconductor-semiconductor nanowire devices
• Testable Signatures of Quantum Nonlocality in a Two-Dimensional Chiralp-Wave Superconductor
• Teoria simmetrica dell’elettrone e del positrone
• Helical Liquids and Majorana Bound States in Quantum Wires
• Midgap edge states and pairing symmetry of quasi-one-dimensional organic superconductors
• Anomalous Zero-Bias Conductance Peak in a Nb–InSb Nanowire–Nb Hybrid Device
• Observing Majorana bound States inp-Wave Superconductors Using Noise Measurements in Tunneling Experiments
• Non-Abelian anyons and topological quantum computation
• Unpaired Majorana fermions in quantum wires

Cited by

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• Topologically nontrivial Andreev bound states
• Numerical study of PbTe-Pb hybrid nanowires for engineering Majorana zero modes
• Correlated parity measurements as a probe of non-Abelian statistics in one-dimensional superconducting wires
• Control and detection of Majorana bound states in quantum dot arrays
• Lifetime of Majorana qubits in Rashba nanowires with nonuniform chemical potential
• Transport signatures of topological superconductivity in a proximity-coupled nanowire