Aharonov-Bohm interference as a probe of Majorana fermions

Abstract

Majorana fermions act as their own antiparticle, and they have long been thought to be confined to the realm of pure theory. However, interest in them has recently resurfaced, as it was realized through the work of Kitaev that some experimentally accessible condensed matter systems can host these exotic excitations as bound states on the boundaries of 1D chains, and that their topological and non-abelian nature holds promise for quantum computation. Unambiguously detecting the experimental signatures of Majorana bound states has turned out to be challenging, as many other phenomena lead to similar experimental behaviour. Here, we computationally study a ring comprised of two Kitaev model chains with tunnel coupling between them, where an applied magnetic field allows for Aharonov-Bohm interference in transport through the resulting ring structure. We use a non-equilibrium Green's function technique to analyse the transport properties of the ring in both the presence and absence of Majorana zero modes. Further, we show that these results are robust against weak disorder in the presence of an applied magnetic field. This computational model suggests another signature for the presence of these topologically protected bound states can be found in the magnetic field dependence of devices with loop geometries.

arXiv comment12 pages, 10 figures. Included new section about disorder in the nanowires and the effect of this on our results

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• Role of dephasing on the conductance signatures of Majorana zero modes
• Aharonov-Bohm Effect in Three-dimensional Higher-order Topological Insulator
• Topological phase transition driven by magnetic field in one-dimensional topological superconductor rings
• Probing the Design Space of InSb Topological Superconductor Nanowires for the Realization of Majorana Zero Modes