Control and detection of Majorana bound states in quantum dot arrays

Abstract

We study the low-energy physics of a one-dimensional array of superconducting quantum dots realized by proximity coupling a semiconductor nanowire to multiple superconducting islands separated by narrow uncovered regions. The effective electrostatic potential inside the quantum dots and the uncovered regions can be controlled using potential gates. By performing detailed numerical calculations based on effective tightbinding models, we find that multiple low-energy sub-gap states consisting of partially overlapping Majorana bound states emerge generically in the vicinity of the uncovered regions. Explicit differential conductance calculations show that a robust zero-bias conductance peak is not inconsistent with the presence of such states localized throughout the system, hence the observation of such a peak does not demonstrate the realization of well-separated Majorana zero modes. However, we find that creating effective potential wells in the uncovered regions traps pairs of nearby partially overlapping Majorana bound states, which become less separated and acquire a finite gap that protects the pair of Majorana zero modes localized at the ends of the system. This behavior persists over a significant parameter range, suggesting that proximitized quantum dot arrays could provide a platform for highly controllable Majorana devices.

arXiv comment14 pages, 14 figures

References in corpus (74)

• Non-Abelian Anyons and Topological Quantum Computation
• Superconducting proximity effect and Majorana fermions at the surface of a topological insulator
• Unpaired Majorana fermions in quantum wires
• Signatures of Majorana fermions in hybrid superconductor-semiconductor nanowire devices
• Majorana Fermions and a Topological Phase Transition in Semiconductor-Superconductor Heterostructures
• Paired states of fermions in two dimensions with breaking of parity and time-reversal symmetries, and the fractional quantum Hall effect
• Helical liquids and Majorana bound states in quantum wires
• Evidence of Majorana fermions in an Al - InAs nanowire topological superconductor
• Observation of Majorana Fermions in Ferromagnetic Atomic Chains on a Superconductor
• A generic new platform for topological quantum computation using semiconductor heterostructures
• Non-Abelian statistics and topological quantum information processing in 1D wire networks
• Observation of Majorana Fermions in a Nb-InSb Nanowire-Nb Hybrid Quantum Device
• Majorana fermions in a tunable semiconductor device
• Observation of the fractional ac Josephson effect: the signature of Majorana particles
• Majorana Zero Modes and Topological Quantum Computation
• Exponential Protection of Zero Modes in Majorana Islands
• Majorana bound states in a coupled quantum-dot hybrid-nanowire system
• Josephson Current and Noise at a Superconductor-Quantum Spin Hall Insulator-Superconductor Junction
• Superconductor-Nanowire Devices from Tunneling to the Multichannel Regime: Zero-Bias Oscillations and Magnetoconductance Crossover
• Anomalous modulation of a zero bias peak in a hybrid nanowire-superconductor device
• Majorana fermions in chains of magnetic atoms on a superconductor
• Scalable Designs for Quasiparticle-Poisoning-Protected Topological Quantum Computation with Majorana Zero Modes
• Spin-resolved Andreev levels and parity crossings in hybrid superconductor-semiconductor nanostructures
• Quantized Majorana conductance
• Topological superconducting phase in helical Shiba chains
• Milestones toward Majorana-based quantum computing
• Non-Abelian quantum order in spin-orbit-coupled semiconductors: The search for topological Majorana particles in solid state systems
• Majorana Fermions in Semiconductor Nanowires: Fundamentals, Modeling, and Experiment
• Scaling of Majorana Zero-Bias Conductance Peaks
• Andreev bound states versus Majorana bound states in quantum dot-nanowire-superconductor hybrid structures: Trivial versus topological zero-bias conductance peaks
• Hard gap in epitaxial semiconductor-superconductor nanowires
• $4\pi$-periodic Josephson supercurrent in HgTe-based topological Josephson junctions
• Near-zero-energy end states in topologically trivial spin-orbit coupled superconducting nanowires with a smooth confinement
• Transport spectroscopy of NS nanowire junctions with Majorana fermions
• Towards a realistic transport modeling in a superconducting nanowire with Majorana fermions
• Two-dimensional epitaxial superconductor-semiconductor heterostructures: A platform for topological superconducting networks
• Self-Organized Topological State with Majorana Fermions
• How to realize a robust practical Majorana chain in a quantum dot-superconductor linear array
• Zero-Energy Modes from Coalescing Andreev States in a Two-Dimensional Semiconductor-Superconductor Hybrid Platform
• Ballistic superconductivity in semiconductor nanowires
• Measuring Majorana non-locality and spin structure with a quantum dot
• Two terminal charge tunneling: Disentangling Majorana zero modes from partially separated Andreev bound states in semiconductor-superconductor heterostructures
• Majorana bound states in non-homogeneous semiconductor nanowires
• Controlling non-Abelian statistics of Majorana fermions on Majorana dimer lattices
• Quantized conductance doubling and hard gap in a two-dimensional semiconductor-superconductor heterostructure
• Experimental Phase Diagram of a One-Dimensional Topological Superconductor
• SNS junctions in nanowires with spin-orbit coupling: role of confinement and helicity on the sub-gap spectrum
• Soft Superconducting Gap in Semiconductor Majorana Nanowires
• Andreev rectifier: a nonlocal conductance signature of topological phase transitions
• Enhanced zero-bias Majorana peak in disordered multi-subband quantum wires
• Experimental and materials considerations for the topological superconducting state in electron and hole doped semiconductors: searching for non-Abelian Majorana modes in 1D nanowires and 2D heterostructures
• Adaptive tuning of Majorana fermions in a quantum dot chain
• Decaying spectral oscillations in a Majorana wire with finite coherence length
• Zero bias conductance peak in Majorana wires made of semiconductor-superconductor hybrid structures
• Multiple Andreev reflection and critical current in topological superconducting nanowire junctions
• On controlling the bound states in quantum-dot hybrid-nanowire
• An experimentally accessible quality factor for Majorana wires
• Andreev Molecules in Semiconductor Nanowire Double Quantum Dots
• Effective theory approach to the Schrodinger-Poisson problem in semiconductor Majorana devices
• Topologically trivial zero bias conductance peak in semiconductor Majorana wires from boundary effects
• Mutation of Andreev into Majorana bound states in long NS and SNS junctions
• Role of dissipation in realistic Majorana nanowires
• Fermionic and Majorana Bound States in Hybrid Nanowires with Non-Uniform Spin-Orbit Interaction
• Combining Topological Hardware and Topological Software: Color Code Quantum Computing with Topological Superconductor Networks
• Fano Resonances in Majorana Bound States - Quantum Dot Hybrid Systems
• Nonlocal noise cross-correlation mediated by entangled Majorana fermions
• Conductance spectroscopy of topological superconductor wire junctions
• Topological pi Josephson junction in superconducting Rashba wires
• Non-locality of zero-bias anomalies in the topologically-trivial phase of Majorana wires
• Majorana bound states in a disordered quantum dot chain
• Probing electron-hole components of subgap states in Coulomb blockaded Majorana islands
• Soft superconducting gap in semiconductor-based Majorana nanowires
• Tunneling conductance in semiconductor-superconductor hybrid structures
• Study on the tunneling spectroscopy of $N-pS$ junction and $N-hS$ junction

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Reproducing topological properties with quasi-Majorana states
• Singlet-doublet transitions of a quantum dot Josephson junction detected in a transmon circuit
• Majorana-Kondo interplay in T-shaped double quantum dots
• Enhanced topological superconductivity in spatially modulated planar Josephson junctions
• Effects of the electrostatic environment on superlattice Majorana nanowires
• Edge mode manipulation through commensurate multifrequency driving
• Integrating micromagnets and hybrid nanowires for topological quantum computing
• Electrostatical formation of the Majorana quasiparticles in the quantum dot--nanoring structure
• Delocalisation of Majorana quasiparticles in plaquette--nanowire hybrid system
• Weyl points in systems of multiple semiconductor-superconductor quantum dots