Deconfinement of Majorana vortex modes produces a superconducting Landau level

Abstract

A spatially oscillating pair potential $\Delta (r)={\Delta }_0{e}^{2iK\cdot r}$ with momentum $K>{\Delta }_0/\hslash v$ drives a deconfinement transition of the Majorana bound states in the vortex cores of a Fu-Kane heterostructure (a 3D topological insulator with Fermi velocity $v$, on a superconducting substrate with gap ${\Delta }_0$, in a perpendicular magnetic field). In the deconfined phase at zero chemical potential the Majorana fermions form a dispersionless Landau level, protected by chiral symmetry against broadening due to vortex scattering. The coherent superposition of electrons and holes in the Majorana Landau level is detectable as a local density of states oscillation with wave vector $\sqrt{K^2-({\Delta }_0/\hslash v{)}^2}$. The striped pattern also provides a means to measure the chirality of the Majorana fermions.

11 pages, 11 figures

References in corpus (8)

• Superconducting proximity effect and Majorana fermions at the surface of a topological insulator
• Disorder Induced Localized States in Graphene
• Bogoliubov Fermi surfaces in superconductors with broken time-reversal symmetry
• Discovery of segmented Fermi surface induced by Cooper pair momentum
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Cited by in corpus (3)

• Majorana Modes of Giant Vortices
• Magnus effect on a Majorana zero-mode
• Chirality inversion of Majorana edge modes in a Fu-Kane heterostructure