Anomalous supercurrent from Majorana states in topological insulator Josephson junctions
We propose a Josephson junction setup based on a topological insulator (TI) thin film to detect Majorana states that exploits the unique helical and extended nature of the TI surface state. When the magnetic flux through the junction is close to an integer number of flux quanta, Majorana states, pre...
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American Physical Society
2014
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Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/88776 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8803-1017 |
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author | Potter, Andrew C. Fu, Liang |
author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics |
author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics Potter, Andrew C. Fu, Liang |
author_sort | Potter, Andrew C. |
collection | MIT |
description | We propose a Josephson junction setup based on a topological insulator (TI) thin film to detect Majorana states that exploits the unique helical and extended nature of the TI surface state. When the magnetic flux through the junction is close to an integer number of flux quanta, Majorana states, present on both surfaces of the film, give rise to a narrow peak-dip structure in the current-phase relation by hybridizing at the edge of the junction. Remarkably, the maximal Majorana-state contribution to Josephson current takes a (nearly) universal value, approximately equal to the supercurrent capacity of a single quantum channel. These features provide a characteristic signature of Majorana states based entirely on supercurrent. |
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format | Article |
id | mit-1721.1/88776 |
institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
language | en_US |
last_indexed | 2024-09-23T09:32:18Z |
publishDate | 2014 |
publisher | American Physical Society |
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spelling | mit-1721.1/887762022-09-30T15:06:21Z Anomalous supercurrent from Majorana states in topological insulator Josephson junctions Potter, Andrew C. Fu, Liang Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics Fu, Liang We propose a Josephson junction setup based on a topological insulator (TI) thin film to detect Majorana states that exploits the unique helical and extended nature of the TI surface state. When the magnetic flux through the junction is close to an integer number of flux quanta, Majorana states, present on both surfaces of the film, give rise to a narrow peak-dip structure in the current-phase relation by hybridizing at the edge of the junction. Remarkably, the maximal Majorana-state contribution to Josephson current takes a (nearly) universal value, approximately equal to the supercurrent capacity of a single quantum channel. These features provide a characteristic signature of Majorana states based entirely on supercurrent. United States. Dept. of Energy. Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering (Award 022090-001) 2014-08-18T18:08:28Z 2014-08-18T18:08:28Z 2013-09 2013-04 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1098-0121 1550-235X http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/88776 Potter, Andrew C., and Liang Fu. “Anomalous Supercurrent from Majorana States in Topological Insulator Josephson Junctions.” Phys. Rev. B 88, no. 12 (September 2013). © 2013 American Physical Society https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8803-1017 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.88.121109 Physical Review B 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 American Physical Society |
spellingShingle | Potter, Andrew C. Fu, Liang Anomalous supercurrent from Majorana states in topological insulator Josephson junctions |
title | Anomalous supercurrent from Majorana states in topological insulator Josephson junctions |
title_full | Anomalous supercurrent from Majorana states in topological insulator Josephson junctions |
title_fullStr | Anomalous supercurrent from Majorana states in topological insulator Josephson junctions |
title_full_unstemmed | Anomalous supercurrent from Majorana states in topological insulator Josephson junctions |
title_short | Anomalous supercurrent from Majorana states in topological insulator Josephson junctions |
title_sort | anomalous supercurrent from majorana states in topological insulator josephson junctions |
url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/88776 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8803-1017 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT potterandrewc anomaloussupercurrentfrommajoranastatesintopologicalinsulatorjosephsonjunctions AT fuliang anomaloussupercurrentfrommajoranastatesintopologicalinsulatorjosephsonjunctions |