Signatures of Majorana Fermions in Hybrid Superconductor-Semiconductor Nanowire Devices

@article{Mourik2012SignaturesOM,
  title={Signatures of Majorana Fermions in Hybrid Superconductor-Semiconductor Nanowire Devices},
  author={Vincent Mourik and Kun Zuo and Sergey M Frolov and S{\'e}bastien R. Plissard and Erik P. A. M. Bakkers and L. P. Kouwenhoven},
  journal={Science},
  year={2012},
  volume={336},
  pages={1003 - 1007}
}
Majoranas Arrive When a negatively charged electron meets a positron—its positively charged antiparticle—they annihilate each other in a flash of gamma rays. A Majorana fermion, on the other hand, is a neutral particle, which is its own antiparticle. No sightings of a Majorana have been reported in the elementary particle world, but recently they have been proposed to exist in solid-state systems and suggested to be of interest as a quantum computing platform. Mourik et al. (p. 1003, published… Expand
View on AAAS
arxiv.org
2,402 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
36
Background Citations
243
Methods Citations
59
Results Citations
14

Supplemental Presentations

Presentation Slides
Signatures of Majorana Fermions in Hybrid Superconductor-Semiconductor Nanowire Devices
Explore Further
Discover more papers related to the topics discussed in this paper

2,402 Citations

Citation Type

Citation Type

Observation of Majorana fermions in ferromagnetic atomic chains on a superconductor
TLDR
High-resolution spectroscopic imaging techniques show that the onset of superconductivity, which gaps the electronic density of states in the bulk of the Fe chains, is accompanied by the appearance of zero-energy end-states, providing strong evidence for the formation of a topological phase and edge-bound Majorana fermions in atomic chains. Expand
Chiral Majorana fermion modes in a quantum anomalous Hall insulator–superconductor structure
TLDR
Transport measurements that suggest the existence of one-dimensional chiral Majorana fermion modes in the hybrid system of a quantum anomalous Hall insulator thin film coupled with a superconductor are reported. Expand
Enter the Majorana Fermion
TLDR
A superconducting nanostructure that harbors such an exotic quasiparticle, a “Majorana bound state,” an excitation that can best be described as half a fermion, is reported. Expand
Majorana fermions in semiconductor nanowires: fundamentals, modeling, and experiment.
  • T. Stanescu, S. Tewari
  • Physics, Medicine
  • Journal of physics. Condensed matter : an Institute of Physics journal
  • 2013
TLDR
This review provides an update on the current status of the search for Majorana fermions in semiconductor nanowires by focusing on the recent developments, in particular the period following the first reports of experimental signatures consistent with the realization of Majorana bound states in semiconducting nanowire-superconductor hybrid structures. Expand
Properties and Transport Characteristics of Majorana Fermions in Nanowires
Majorana fermions are quasiparticle excitations which are features of a two-dimensional quantum system in a so-called topological phase. Majorana fermions are non-Abelian anyons and the system… Expand
Signature of a pair of Majorana zero modes in superconducting gold surface states
TLDR
Using scanning tunneling microscope to probe EuS islands grown on top of gold nanowires, two well-separated zero-bias tunneling conductance peaks aligned along the direction of the applied magnetic field are observed, as expected for a pair of Majorana zero modes. Expand
Observation of the fractional ac Josephson effect: the signature of Majorana particles
Topological superconductors which support Majorana fermions are thought to be realized in one-dimensional semiconducting wires coupled to a superconductor [1–3]. Such excitations are expected to… Expand
Supercurrent interference in semiconductor nanowire Josephson junctions
Semiconductor-superconductor hybrid systems provide a promising platform for hosting unpaired Majorana fermions towards the realization of fault-tolerant topological quantum computing. In this study… Expand
Majorana fermions in magnetic chains
Abstract Majorana fermions have recently garnered a great attention outside the field of particle physics, in condensed matter physics. In contrast to their particle physics counterparts, Majorana… Expand
High Temperature Fermi Statistics from Majorana Fermions in an Insulating Magnet
Majorana fermions, particles that are their own anti-particles, can emerge in insulating magnets as excitations with fractions of the constituent's quantum numbers. Interest in Majoranas is driven by… Expand
...
1
2
3
4
5
...

References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 74 REFERENCES
Search for Majorana Fermions in Superconductors
Majorana fermions (particles that are their own antiparticle) may or may not exist in nature as elementary building blocks, but in condensed matter they can be constructed out of electron and hole… Expand
Majorana fermions in a tunable semiconductor device
The experimental realization of Majorana fermions presents an important problem due to their non-Abelian nature and potential exploitation for topological quantum computation. Very recently Sau et… Expand
Majorana Fermions in Semiconductor Nanowires
We study multiband semiconducting nanowires proximity coupled with an $s$-wave superconductor and calculate the topological phase diagram as a function of the chemical potential and magnetic field.… Expand
New directions in the pursuit of Majorana fermions in solid state systems.
  • J. Alicea
  • Physics, Medicine
  • Reports on progress in physics. Physical Society
  • 2012
TLDR
This review paper highlights recent advances in the condensed matter search for Majorana that have led many in the field to believe that this quest may soon bear fruit and discusses the most remarkable properties of condensed matter Majorana fermions-the non-Abelian exchange statistics that they generate and their associated potential for quantum computation. Expand
Majorana fermions and a topological phase transition in semiconductor-superconductor heterostructures.
TLDR
The measurement of the supercurrent through the junction allows one to discern topologically distinct phases and observe a topological phase transition by simply changing the in-plane magnetic field or the gate voltage, which will be a direct demonstration of the existence of Majorana particles. Expand
Spin-resolved Andreev levels and parity crossings in hybrid superconductor-semiconductor nanostructures.
TLDR
A direct measurement of the Zeeman effect on the Andreev levels of a semiconductor quantum dot with large electron g-factor, strongly coupled to a conventional superconductor with a large critical magnetic field allows spin degeneracy to be lifted without destroying superconductivity. Expand
Unpaired Majorana fermions in quantum wires
Certain one-dimensional Fermi systems have an energy gap in the bulk spectrum while boundary states are described by one Majorana operator per boundary point. A finite system of length L possesses… Expand
Towards a realistic transport modeling in a superconducting nanowire with Majorana fermions
Motivated by recent experiments searching for Majorana fermions (MFs) in hybrid semiconducting-superconducting nanostructures, we consider a realistic tight-binding model and analyze its transport… Expand
Parity independence of the zero-bias conductance peak in a nanowire based topological superconductor-quantum dot hybrid device
TLDR
It is found that the zero-bias conductance peak is present in many consecutive Coulomb diamonds, irrespective of the even-odd parity of the quasi-particle occupation number in the quantum dot. Expand
Dynamical detection of Majorana fermions in current-biased nanowires
We analyze the current-biased Shapiro experiment in a Josephson junction formed by two one-dimensional nanowires featuring Majorana fermions. Ideally, these junctions are predicted to have an… Expand
...
1
2
3
4
5
...