Evidence for Majorana bound states in transport properties of hybrid structures based on helical liquids

Abstract

Majorana bound states can emerge as zero-energy modes at the edge of a two-dimensional topological insulator in proximity to an ordinary s-wave superconductor. The presence of an additional ferromagnetic domain close to the superconductor can lead to their localization. We consider both N-S and S-N-S junctions based on helical liquids and study their spectral properties for arbitrary ferromagnetic scatterers in the normal region. Thereby, we explicitly compute Andreev wave-functions at zero energy. We show under which conditions these states form localized Majorana bound states in N-S and S-N-S junctions. Interestingly, we can identify Majorana-specific signatures in the transport properties of N-S junctions and the Andreev bound levels of S-N-S junctions that are robust against external perturbations. We illustrate these findings with the example of a ferromagnetic double barrier (i.e. a quantum dot) close to the N-S boundaries.

In v2, section IV about Josephson junctions has been partly rewritten in order to discuss the ABS spectrum in the presence of a double ferromagnetic barrier. The list of references has been updated

References in corpus (11)

• Quantum Spin Hall Insulator State in HgTe Quantum Wells
• Signatures of Majorana fermions in hybrid superconductor-semiconductor nanowire devices
• Majorana Fermions and a Topological Phase Transition in Semiconductor-Superconductor Heterostructures
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• The Helical Liquid and the Edge of Quantum Spin Hall Systems
• Towards a realistic transport modeling in a superconducting nanowire with Majorana fermions
• Zero-bias anomaly in a nanowire quantum dot coupled to superconductors
• Fermion-parity anomaly of the critical supercurrent in the quantum spin-Hall effect
• Mutation of Andreev into Majorana bound states in long NS and SNS junctions
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• Properties of Mesoscopic Hybrid Superconducting Systems

Cited by in corpus (34)

• Proximity-induced Josephson $\pi$-Junctions in Topological Insulators
• Odd-Frequency Triplet Superconductivity at the Helical Edge of a Toplogical Insulator
• Revealing topological superconductivity in extended quantum spin Hall Josephson junctions
• Tunable magnetic textures in spin valves: From spintronics to Majorana bound states
• Tunable hybridization of Majorana bound states at the quantum spin Hall edge
• Helical Liquids in Semiconductors
• Boundary spin polarization as robust signature of topological phase transition in Majorana nanowires
• Fractional Josephson Effect in Number-Conserving Systems
• Optimal thermoelectricity with quantum spin-Hall edge states
• Formation and detection of Majorana modes in quantum spin Hall trenches
• On-demand thermoelectric generation of equal-spin Cooper pairs
• Anomalous supercurrent and diode effect in locally perturbed topological Josephson junctions
• Tunneling spectroscopy and Josephson current of superconductor-ferromagnet hybrids on the surface of a 3D TI
• Majorana-like localized spin density without bound states in topologically trivial spin-orbit coupled nanowires
• Phase-tunable electron transport assisted by odd-frequency Cooper pairs in topological Josephson junctions
• Renormalization of quantum dot $g$-factor in superconducting Rashba nanowires
• Signatures of Jackiw-Rebbi resonance in the thermal conductance of topological Josephson junctions with magnetic islands
• Spin-Pairing Correlations and Spin Polarization of Majorana Bound States in Two-Dimensional Topological Insulator Systems
• The invisible Majorana bound state at the helical edge
• Moving Majorana bound states between distinct helical edges across a quantum point contact
• Majorana bound states in topological insulators with hidden Dirac points
• Detailed study of nonlinear cooling with two-terminal configurations of topological edge states
• Waiting time distributions in Quantum spin hall based heterostructures
• Voltage-tunable Majorana bound states in time-reversal symmetric bilayer quantum spin Hall hybrid systems
• Identifying Majorana bound states at quantum spin Hall edges using a metallic probe
• Symmetry analysis of transport properties in helical superconductor junctions
• A topological current divider
• Chiral detection of Majorana bound states at the edge of a quantum spin Hall insulator
• Spin-resolved spectroscopy of helical Andreev bound states
• Ever-present Majorana bound state in a generic one-dimensional superconductor with odd number of Fermi surfaces
• Phase-tunable multiple Andreev reflections in a quantum spin Hall strip
• Confinement versus interface bound states in spin-orbit coupled nanowires
• Transmission of charge and spin in a topological-insulator-based magnetic structure
• Detection of fractional solitons in quantum spin Hall systems