Zero-Bias Peaks in the Tunneling Conductance of Spin-Orbit-Coupled Superconducting Wires with and without Majorana End-States
One of the simplest proposed experimental probes of a Majorana bound state is a quantized (2e[superscript 2]/h) value of zero-bias tunneling conductance. When temperature is somewhat larger than the intrinsic width of the Majorana peak, conductance is no longer quantized, but a zero-bias peak can re...
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| Format: | Article |
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American Physical Society
2013
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/77161 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7809-8157 |
| _version_ | 1811087216867278848 |
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| author | Potter, Andrew Cole Lee, Patrick A. Liu, Jie Law, Kam Tuen |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics Potter, Andrew Cole Lee, Patrick A. Liu, Jie Law, Kam Tuen |
| author_sort | Potter, Andrew Cole |
| collection | MIT |
| description | One of the simplest proposed experimental probes of a Majorana bound state is a quantized (2e[superscript 2]/h) value of zero-bias tunneling conductance. When temperature is somewhat larger than the intrinsic width of the Majorana peak, conductance is no longer quantized, but a zero-bias peak can remain. Such a nonquantized zero-bias peak has been recently reported for semiconducting nanowires with proximity induced superconductivity. In this Letter we analyze the relation of the zero-bias peak to the presence of Majorana end states, by simulating the tunneling conductance for multiband wires with realistic amounts of disorder. We show that this system generically exhibits a (nonquantized) zero-bias peak even when the wire is topologically trivial and does not possess Majorana end states. We make comparisons to recent experiments, and discuss the necessary requirements for confirming the existence of a Majorana state. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:41:55Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/77161 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:41:55Z |
| publishDate | 2013 |
| publisher | American Physical Society |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/771612022-09-28T15:37:08Z Zero-Bias Peaks in the Tunneling Conductance of Spin-Orbit-Coupled Superconducting Wires with and without Majorana End-States Potter, Andrew Cole Lee, Patrick A. Liu, Jie Law, Kam Tuen Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics Potter, Andrew Cole Lee, Patrick A. One of the simplest proposed experimental probes of a Majorana bound state is a quantized (2e[superscript 2]/h) value of zero-bias tunneling conductance. When temperature is somewhat larger than the intrinsic width of the Majorana peak, conductance is no longer quantized, but a zero-bias peak can remain. Such a nonquantized zero-bias peak has been recently reported for semiconducting nanowires with proximity induced superconductivity. In this Letter we analyze the relation of the zero-bias peak to the presence of Majorana end states, by simulating the tunneling conductance for multiband wires with realistic amounts of disorder. We show that this system generically exhibits a (nonquantized) zero-bias peak even when the wire is topologically trivial and does not possess Majorana end states. We make comparisons to recent experiments, and discuss the necessary requirements for confirming the existence of a Majorana state. United States. Dept. of Energy (Grant DEFG0203ER46076) 2013-02-20T17:10:25Z 2013-02-20T17:10:25Z 2012-12 2012-06 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0031-9007 1079-7114 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/77161 Liu, Jie et al. “Zero-Bias Peaks in the Tunneling Conductance of Spin-Orbit-Coupled Superconducting Wires with and Without Majorana End-States.” Physical Review Letters 109.26 (2012). © 2012 American Physical Society https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7809-8157 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.267002 Physical Review Letters Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf American Physical Society APS |
| spellingShingle | Potter, Andrew Cole Lee, Patrick A. Liu, Jie Law, Kam Tuen Zero-Bias Peaks in the Tunneling Conductance of Spin-Orbit-Coupled Superconducting Wires with and without Majorana End-States |
| title | Zero-Bias Peaks in the Tunneling Conductance of Spin-Orbit-Coupled Superconducting Wires with and without Majorana End-States |
| title_full | Zero-Bias Peaks in the Tunneling Conductance of Spin-Orbit-Coupled Superconducting Wires with and without Majorana End-States |
| title_fullStr | Zero-Bias Peaks in the Tunneling Conductance of Spin-Orbit-Coupled Superconducting Wires with and without Majorana End-States |
| title_full_unstemmed | Zero-Bias Peaks in the Tunneling Conductance of Spin-Orbit-Coupled Superconducting Wires with and without Majorana End-States |
| title_short | Zero-Bias Peaks in the Tunneling Conductance of Spin-Orbit-Coupled Superconducting Wires with and without Majorana End-States |
| title_sort | zero bias peaks in the tunneling conductance of spin orbit coupled superconducting wires with and without majorana end states |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/77161 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7809-8157 |
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