Tunneling spectrum of a pinned vortex with a robust Majorana state

Abstract

We study a heterostructure which consists of a topological insulator and a superconductor with a hole. The hole pins a vortex. The system supports a robust Majorana fermion state bound to the vortex core. We investigate the possibility of using scanning tunneling spectroscopy (i) to detect the Majorana fermion in the proposed setup and (ii) to study excited states bound to the vortex core. The Majorana fermion manifests itself as a magnetic-field dependent zero-bias anomaly of the tunneling conductance. Optimal parameters for detecting Majorana fermions have been obtained. In the optimal regime, the Majorana fermion is separated from the excited states by a substantial gap. The number of zero-energy states equals the number of flux quanta in the hole; thus, the strength of the zero-bias anomaly depends on the magnetic field. The lowest energy excitations bound to the core are also studied. The excited states spectrum differs from the spectrum of a typical Abrikosov vortex, providing additional indirect confirmation of the Majorana state observation.

10 pages, 6 figures

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• Topological transitions in electronic spectra: Crossover between Abrikosov and Josephson vortices
• Statistical Majorana Bound State Spectroscopy
• Finite temperature effects on Majorana bound states in chiral $p$-wave superconductors
• Bound fermion states in pinned vortices in the surface states of a superconducting topological insulator: The Majorana bound state
• Low-energy in-gap states of vortices in superconductor-semiconductor heterostructures
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• Majorana vortex modes in spin-singlet chiral superconductors with noncollinear spin ordering: Local density of states study
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• Coexistence of gapless and gapped vortex modes with Majorana corner states in a 2D second-order topological superconductor
• Influence of disorder on antidot vortex Majorana states in 3D topological insulators
• Scattering states of a vortex in the proximity-induced superconducting state at the interface of a topological insulator and an s-wave superconductor