Towards a realistic transport modeling in a superconducting nanowire with Majorana fermions

Abstract

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 behavior numerically. In particular, we take into account the presence of a superconducting contact, used in real experiments to extract the current, which is usually not included in theoretical calculations. We show that important features emerge that are absent in simpler models, such as the shift in energy of the proximity gap signal, and the enhanced visibility of the topological gap for increased spin-orbit interaction. We find oscillations of the zero bias peak as a function of the magnetic field and study them analytically. We argue that many of the experimentally observed features hint at an actual spin-orbit interaction larger than the one typically assumed. However, even taking into account all the known ingredients of the experiments and exploring many parameter regimes for MFs, we are not able to reach full agreement with the reported data. Thus, a different physical origin for the observed zero-bias peak cannot be excluded.

7 pages, 7 figures; Published version

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Cited by in corpus (47)

• Evidence of Majorana fermions in an Al - InAs nanowire topological superconductor
• Majorana bound states in a coupled quantum-dot hybrid-nanowire system
• Anomalous modulation of a zero bias peak in a hybrid nanowire-superconductor device
• SNS junctions in nanowires with spin-orbit coupling: role of confinement and helicity on the sub-gap spectrum
• Kramers Pairs of Majorana Fermions and Parafermions in Fractional Topological Insulators
• Shiba states and zero-bias anomalies in the hybrid normal-superconductor Anderson model
• Majorana splitting from critical currents in Josephson junctions
• Probing Majorana Physics in Quantum Dot Shot Noise Experiments
• Signatures of Majorana Zero Modes in Spin-Resolved Current Correlations
• Interaction effects on a Majorana zero mode leaking into a quantum dot
• Majorana Fermions in Chiral Topological Ferromagnetic Nanowires
• Parity independence of the zero-bias conductance peak in a nanowire based topological superconductor-quantum dot hybrid device
• Role of dissipation in realistic Majorana nanowires
• Fermionic and Majorana Bound States in Hybrid Nanowires with Non-Uniform Spin-Orbit Interaction
• Majorana Fermions in Ge/Si Hole Nanowires
• Detecting Majoranas in 1D wires by charge sensing
• Zero-energy pinning from interactions in Majorana nanowires
• Topological Phase Detection in Rashba Nanowires with a Quantum Dot
• Conductance behavior in nanowires with spin-orbit interaction -- A numerical study
• Finite-size effects in a nanowire strongly coupled to a thin superconducting shell
• Majorana Kramers pairs in Rashba double nanowires with interactions and disorder
• Direct cavity detection of Majorana pairs
• Robustness of Majorana edge modes and topological order -- exact results for the symmetric interacting Kitaev chain with disorder
• Josephson effect in multiterminal topological junctions
• Tunneling transport in NSN junctions made of Majorana nanowires across the topological quantum phase transition
• Josephson effect in superconducting wires supporting multiple Majorana edge states
• Entangling Spins in Double Quantum Dots and Majorana Bound States
• Spin-resolved interference due to Majorana state on interface between normal and superconducting leads
• Conductance spectroscopy on Majorana wires and the inverse proximity effect
• Degeneracy lifting of Majorana bound states due to electron-phonon interactions
• Phenomenology of soft gap, zero bias peak, and zero mode splitting in ideal Majorana nanowires
• Majorana Bound States in Double Nanowires with Reduced Zeeman Thresholds due to Supercurrents
• Majorana quasiparticles of inhomogeneous Rashba chain
• Probing the Antisymmetric Fano Interference Assisted by a Majorana Fermion
• Chiral zero modes in superconducting nanowires with Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling
• Fingerprints of Majorana fermions in current-correlations measurements from a superconducting tunnel microscope
• Generalized Eilenberger theory for Majorana zero-mode-carrying disordered $p$-wave superconductors
• Enhanced current noise correlations in a Coulomb-Majorana device
• Majorana modes and complex band structure of quantum wires
• Andreev and Majorana bound states in single and double quantum dot structures
• Probing Majorana-like states in quantum dots and quantum rings
• Possibility of adiabatic transport of a Majorana edge state through an extended gapless region
• Three-Dimensional Fractional Topological Insulators in Coupled Rashba Layers
• Effects of finite superconducting coherence lengths and of phase gradients in topological SN and SNS junctions and rings
• Detecting a quantum critical point in topological SN junctions
• Majorana fermions in semiconductor nanostructures with two wires connected through ring
• Ising quantum criticality in Majorana nanowires