Corner states, hinge states and Majorana modes in SnTe nanowires

Abstract

SnTe materials are one of the most flexible material platforms for exploring the interplay of topology and different types of symmetry breaking. We study symmetry-protected topological states in SnTe nanowires in the presence of various combinations of Zeeman field, s-wave superconductivity and inversion-symmetry-breaking field. We uncover the origin of robust corner states and hinge states in the normal state. In the presence of superconductivity, we find inversion-symmetry-protected gapless bulk Majorana modes, which give rise to quantized thermal conductance in ballistic wires. By introducing an inversion-symmetry-breaking field, the bulk Majorana modes become gapped and topologically protected localized Majorana zero modes appear at the ends of the wire.

16 pages, 13 figures

References in corpus (14)

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Cited by in corpus (8)

• Spin and Orbital Spectroscopy in the Absence of Coulomb Blockade in Lead Telluride Nanowire Quantum Dots
• Spin-orbit insulating phase in SnTe cubic nanowires: consequences on the topological surface states
• Pentagonal nanowires from topological crystalline insulators: a platform for intrinsic core-shell nanowires and higher-order topology
• Topological electronic structure of twin boundaries and twinning superlattices in the SnTe material class
• Topological phase diagram of Pb1-xSnxSe1-yTey
• Perfectly localized Majorana corner modes in fermionic lattices
• Anisotropic transport properties in prismatic topological insulator nanowires
• Coexistence of Rashba and Dirac dispersions on the surface of centrosymmetric topological insulator decorated with transition metals