Flux-induced Majorana modes in full-shell nanowires

ORAL

Abstract

We demonstrate a novel means of creating Majorana zero modes using magnetic flux applied to a full superconducting shell surrounding a semiconducting nanowire core, unifying approaches based on proximitized nanowires and vortices in topological superconductors. In the destructive Little-Parks regime, reentrant regions of superconductivity are associated with an integer number of phase windings in the shell. Tunneling into the core reveals a hard induced gap near zero applied flux, corresponding to zero phase winding, and a gapped region with a discrete zero-energy state for flux around $\Phi_{0} = h/2e$, corresponding to $2 \pi$ phase winding. Coulomb peak spacing in full-shell islands around one applied flux shows exponentially decreasing deviation from $1e$ periodicity with device length, consistent with the picture of Majorana modes located at the ends of the wire.

https://arxiv.org/abs/1809.05513

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Presenters

  • Saulius Vaitiekenas

    Center for Quantum Devices and Microsoft Quantum Lab--Copenhagen, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen

Authors

  • Saulius Vaitiekenas

    Center for Quantum Devices and Microsoft Quantum Lab--Copenhagen, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen

  • Mingtang Deng

    Center for Quantum Devices and Microsoft Quantum Lab--Copenhagen, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen

  • Peter Krogstrup

    Niels Bohr Institute, Center for Quantum Devices and Microsoft Quantum Lab--Copenhagen, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Center for Quantum Devices, Niels Bohr Institute, Center for Quantum Devices and Station-Q Copenhagen, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Center for Quantum Devices, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Station Q, Microsoft, Microsoft Corp

  • Charles M Marcus

    Microsoft, Center for Quantum Devices and Station Q Copenhagen, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Center for Quantum Devices, University of Copenhagen, Center for Quantum Devices and Station Q Copenhagen, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 5, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark, Center for Quantum Devices and Microsoft Quantum Lab--Copenhagen, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Niels Bohr Institute, Center for Quantum Devices, Niels Bohr Institute, Center for Quantum Devices, Station Q Copenhagen, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Center for Quantum Devices and Microsoft Quantum Lab–Copenhagen, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Center for Quantum Devices and Station Q Copenhagen, University of Copenhagen