Superconducting proximity effect and Majorana fermions at the surface of a topological insulator

Abstract

We study the proximity effect between an s-wave superconductor and the surface states of a strong topological insulator. The resulting two dimensional state resembles a spinless p_x+ip_y superconductor, but does not break time reversal symmetry. This state supports Majorana bound states at vortices. We show that linear junctions between superconductors mediated by the topological insulator form a non chiral 1 dimensional wire for Majorana fermions, and that circuits formed from these junctions provide a method for creating, manipulating and fusing Majorana bound states.

4 pages, 3 figures, published version

References in corpus (7)

• Quantum Spin Hall Effect and Topological Phase Transition in HgTe Quantum Wells
• Topological Insulators with Inversion Symmetry
• Quantum Spin Hall Effect and Enhanced Magnetic Response by Spin-Orbit Coupling
• Josephson effect in ballistic graphene
• Observing Majorana Bound States in p-wave Superconductors Using Noise Measurements in Tunneling Experiments
• Quantum Computation Using Vortices and Majorana Zero Modes of a $p_x$ + $i{p}_y$ Superfluid of Fermionic Cold Atoms
• Excitation gap of a graphene channel with superconducting boundaries

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Discovery (theoretical prediction and experimental observation) of a large-gap topological-insulator class with spin-polarized single-Dirac-cone on the surface
• First direct observation of Spin-textures in Topological Insulators : Spin-resolved ARPES as a probe of topological quantum spin Hall effect and Berry's phase
• Topological Surface States Protected From Backscattering by Chiral Spin Texture
• Surface States of the Topological Insulator Bi_{1-x}Sb_x
• Electrically detected interferometry of Majorana fermions in a topological insulator
• Helical Metal Inside a Topological Band Insulator
• Exciton condensation and charge fractionalization in a topological insulator film
• Splitting of Majorana modes due to intervortex tunneling in a p + ip superconductor
• Near zero modes in condensate phases of the Dirac theory on the honeycomb lattice
• Stability of half quantum vortex in rotating superfluid 3He-A between parallel plates