Formation and detection of Majorana modes in quantum spin Hall trenches

2020/01/31 by Christoph Fleckenstein, C. Fleckenstein, N. Traverso Ziani +7 · 1 citation
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Condensed matter physics #Graphene research and applications #MAJORANA #Magnetic field #Physics #Quantum #Quantum Hall effect #Quantum many-body systems #Quantum mechanics #Quantum spin Hall effect #Spin (aerodynamics) #Superconductivity #Topological Materials and Phenomena #Topological insulator #Topology (electrical circuits) #Zeeman effect #Zero mode #cond-mat.mes-hall #cond-mat.supr-con

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.103.125303

published as Phys. Rev. B 103, 125303 (2021) · 8 pages, 7 figures + Supp. Mat

arxiv created 2020/11/20 · openalex publication_date 2021/03/11 · arxiv updated 2021/03/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

We propose a novel realization for a topologically superconducting phase hosting Majorana zero modes on the basis of quantum spin Hall systems. Remarkably, our proposal is completely free of ferromagnets. Instead, we confine helical edge states around a narrow defect line of finite length in a two-dimensional topological insulator. We demonstrate the formation of a new topological regime, hosting protected Majorana modes in the presence of s-wave superconductivity and Zeeman coupling. Interestingly, when the system is weakly tunnel coupled to helical edge state reservoirs, a particular transport signature is associated with the presence of a non-Abelian Majorana zero mode.

Citations

• Signatures of Majorana fermions in hybrid superconductor-semiconductor nanowire devices
• Inelastic Electron Backscattering in a Generic Helical Edge Channel
• Quantum Spin Hall Effect in Graphene
• Quantum Spin Hall Insulator State in HgTe Quantum Wells
• Helical Liquids and Majorana Bound States in Quantum Wires
• Observation of Majorana Fermions in Ferromagnetic Atomic Chains on a Superconductor
• The Quantum Spin Hall Effect: Theory and Experiment
• 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
• Topological π Junctions from Crossed Andreev Reflection in the Quantum Hall Regime
• Decaying spectral oscillations in a Majorana wire with finite coherence length
• Supercurrent Detection of Topologically Trivial Zero-Energy States in Nanowire Junctions

Cited by

• Limits of thermal conductance quantization in chiral topological Josephson junctions