Quantized zero-bias conductance plateau in semiconductor-superconductor heterostructures without topological Majorana zero modes

2018/04/09 by C. Moore, Christopher Hudson Moore, Chuanchang Zeng +3 · 204 citations
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Condensed Matter Physics #Bound state #Charge (physics) #Condensed matter physics #Conductance #Heterojunction #MAJORANA #Mathematics #Physics #Plateau (mathematics) #Quantum #Quantum many-body systems #Quantum mechanics #Quantum tunnelling #Superconductivity #Topological Materials and Phenomena #Topology (electrical circuits) #cond-mat.mes-hall

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.98.155314

published in Physical review. B./Physical review. B 98(15) (American Physical Society) · 8 pages, 8 figures

arxiv created 2018/04/09 · openalex created_date 2018/04/24 · openalex publication_date 2018/10/19 · arxiv updated 2018/10/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06

Abstract

Recent observations of robust zero-bias quantized conductance plateaus of height 2e²/h in quantum dot-semiconductor-superconductor nanowire heterostructures have been interpreted as clear evidence for the presence of non-Abelian topologically protected Majorana zero modes (MZMs), since other sources of low-energy conductance are believed to be unable to produce such quantized plateaus. Based on extensive numerical calculations, we show that, in fact, quantized conductance plateaus of height 2e²/h can also arise as a result of partially separated Andreev bound states (ps-ABSs), in which the component Majorana bound states are somewhat shifted in space without being topological MZMs. As ps-ABSs can form rather generically in the topologically trivial phase, even in the absence of disorder, our results conclusively establish that the observation of quantized conductance plateaus of height 2e²/h does not represent sufficient evidence for the existence of topologically protected MZMs localized at the opposite ends of a wire.

Citations

• Signatures of Majorana fermions in hybrid superconductor-semiconductor nanowire devices
• Majorana fermions in a tunable semiconductor device
• Topologically trivial zero-bias conductance peak in semiconductor Majorana wires from boundary effects
• TopologicalπJosephson junction in superconducting Rashba wires
• Helical Liquids and Majorana Bound States in Quantum Wires
• Midgap edge states and pairing symmetry of quasi-one-dimensional organic superconductors
• Superconductor-nanowire devices from tunneling to the multichannel regime: Zero-bias oscillations and magnetoconductance crossover
• Anomalous Zero-Bias Conductance Peak in a Nb–InSb Nanowire–Nb Hybrid Device
• Search for Majorana Fermions in Superconductors
• Non-Abelian anyons and topological quantum computation
• Unpaired Majorana fermions in quantum wires
• Andreev bound states versus Majorana bound states in quantum dot-nanowire-superconductor hybrid structures: Trivial versus topological zero-bias conductance peaks
• Decaying spectral oscillations in a Majorana wire with finite coherence length

Cited by

• Limits of thermal conductance quantization in chiral topological Josephson junctions
• Topologically nontrivial Andreev bound states
• Numerical study of PbTe-Pb hybrid nanowires for engineering Majorana zero modes
• Conductance smearing and anisotropic suppression of induced superconductivity in a Majorana nanowire