Strong localization of Majorana end states in chains of magnetic adatoms

Abstract

A recent experiment [Nadj-Perge et al., Science 346, 602 (2014)] gives possible evidence for Majorana bound states in chains of magnetic adatoms placed on a superconductor. While many features of the observed end states are naturally interpreted in terms of Majoranas, their strong localization remained puzzling. We consider a linear chain of Anderson impurities on a superconductor as a minimal model and treat it largely analytically within mean-field theory. We explore the phase diagram, the subgap excitation spectrum, and the Majorana wavefunctions. Owing to a strong velocity renormalization, the latter are localized on a scale which is parametrically small compared to the coherence length of the host superconductor.

to appear in PRL; includes new heuristic section; 5 pages + supplementary material

References in corpus (14)

• Superconducting proximity effect and Majorana fermions at the surface of a topological insulator
• Signatures of Majorana fermions in hybrid superconductor-semiconductor nanowire devices
• Majorana Fermions and a Topological Phase Transition in Semiconductor-Superconductor Heterostructures
• Evidence of Majorana fermions in an Al - InAs nanowire topological superconductor
• Observation of Majorana Fermions in Ferromagnetic Atomic Chains on a Superconductor
• Observation of Majorana Fermions in a Nb-InSb Nanowire-Nb Hybrid Quantum Device
• Anomalous modulation of a zero bias peak in a hybrid nanowire-superconductor device
• Edge-mode Superconductivity in a Two Dimensional Topological Insulator
• Spin-selective Peierls transition in interacting one-dimensional conductors with spin-orbit interaction
• Engineering a p+ip Superconductor: Comparison of Topological Insulator and Rashba Spin-Orbit Coupled Materials
• Topological Superconductivity induced by Ferromagnetic Metal Chains
• Majorana Fermions in Chiral Topological Ferromagnetic Nanowires
• Interplay of topological phases in magnetic adatom-chains on top of a Rashba superconducting surface
• Self-organized topological state in the magnetic chain on the surface of a superconductor

Cited by in corpus (15)

• Shiba states and zero-bias anomalies in the hybrid normal-superconductor Anderson model
• Scaling of Yu-Shiba-Rusinov energies in the weak-coupling Kondo regime
• Spiral magnetic order and topological superconductivity in a chain of magnetic adatoms on a two-dimensional superconductor
• Topological properties of chains of magnetic impurities on a superconducting substrate: Interplay between the Shiba band and ferromagnetic wire limits
• Robustness of Majorana bound states in the short junction limit
• DIII Topological Superconductivity with Emergent Time-Reversal Symmetry
• Majorana quasiparticles of inhomogeneous Rashba chain
• Realizing Topological Superconductivity with Superlattices
• Probing Majorana-like states in quantum dots and quantum rings
• Majorana states and magnetic orbital motion in planar hybrid nanowires
• Substrate-induced Majorana renormalization in topological nanowires
• Closing the superconducting gap in small Pb-nanoislands with high magnetic fields
• Renormalization of the Majorana bound state decay length in a perpendicular magnetic field
• Spin-polarized currents and noise in NS junctions with Yu-Shiba-Rusinov impurities
• Optically and electrically controllable adatom spin-orbital dynamics in transition metal dichalcogenides