Ballistic Majorana nanowire devices

2016/03/13 by Önder Gül, Hao Zhang, Jouri D. S. Bommer +9 · 1 voice · 12 citations
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Condensed Matter Physics #Condensed matter physics #Graphene research and applications #MAJORANA #Magnetic field #Nanowire #Parameter space #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Quantum tunnelling #Superconductivity #Topological Materials and Phenomena #Topology (electrical circuits) #Zeeman effect #cond-mat.mes-hall

paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/s41565-017-0032-8

published as Nature Nanotechnology (2018) · See https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4721357 for source data. No changes in this version (v3) compared to the previous version (v2)

arxiv published 2016/03/13 · openalex publication_date 2018/01/12 · arxiv created 2021/04/26 · arxiv updated 2021/04/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

Majorana modes are zero-energy excitations of a topological superconductor that exhibit non-Abelian statistics. Following proposals for their detection in a semiconductor nanowire coupled to an s-wave superconductor, several tunneling experiments reported characteristic Majorana signatures. Reducing disorder has been a prime challenge for these experiments because disorder can mimic the zero-energy signatures of Majoranas, and renders the topological properties inaccessible. Here, we show characteristic Majorana signatures in InSb nanowire devices exhibiting clear ballistic transport properties. Application of a magnetic field and spatial control of carrier density using local gates generates a zero bias peak that is rigid over a large region in the parameter space of chemical potential, Zeeman energy, and tunnel barrier potential. The reduction of disorder allows us to resolve separate regions in the parameter space with and without a zero bias peak, indicating topologically distinct phases. These observations are consistent with the Majorana theory in a ballistic system, and exclude for the first time the known alternative explanations that invoke disorder or a nonuniform chemical potential.

Citations

• Signatures of Majorana fermions in hybrid superconductor-semiconductor nanowire devices
• Helical liquids and Majorana bound states in quantum wires
• Anomalous Zero-Bias Conductance Peak in a Nb–InSb Nanowire–Nb Hybrid Device
• Unpaired Majorana fermions in quantum wires

Cited by

• Interplay between pairing and correlations in spin-polarized bound states
• Andreev spin qubits in multichannel Rashba nanowires
• Proximity-induced supercurrent through topological insulator based nanowires for quantum computation studies
• Conductance-Matrix Symmetries of a Three-Terminal Hybrid Device
• Role of dissipation in realistic Majorana nanowires
• Ballistic superconductivity in semiconductor nanowires
• Nontopological zero-bias peaks in full-shell nanowires induced by flux-tunable Andreev states
• Decaying spectral oscillations in a Majorana wire with finite coherence length
• Majorana-like localized spin density without bound states in topologically trivial spin-orbit coupled nanowires
• Numerical study of PbTe-Pb hybrid nanowires for engineering Majorana zero modes
• Flux-induced topological superconductor in planar Josephson junction
• Conductance smearing and anisotropic suppression of induced superconductivity in a Majorana nanowire

Discussions

• This first version of these manuscripts mentioned above can still be found on arxiv as a v1 - I was dropped as a co-author on the later versions that became the Nat nano paper. arxiv.org/abs/1603.040. [bsky, 1 points, 1 comments]

Related

• Ballistic transport in 1D Rashba systems in the context of Majorana nanowires
• Signatures of Majorana fermions in hybrid superconductor-semiconductor nanowire devices
• Probing the Design Space of InSb Topological Superconductor Nanowires for the Realization of Majorana Zero Modes
• Do Majorana zero modes emerge in the hybrid nanowire under a strong magnetic field?
• Stability of Majorana modes in Coulomb-disordered topological insulator nanowires