Metallization and proximity superconductivity in topological insulator nanowires

Abstract

A heterostructure consisting of a topological insulator (TI) nanowire brought into proximity with a superconducting layer provides a promising route to achieve topological superconductivity and associated Majorana bound states (MBSs). Here, we study effects caused by such a coupling between a thin layer of an $s$-wave superconductor and a TI nanowire. We show that there is a distinct phenomenology arising from the metallization of states in the TI nanowire by the superconductor. In the strong coupling limit, required to induce a large superconducting pairing potential, we find that metallization results in a shift of the TI nanowire subbands ($\sim 20$ meV) as well as it leads to a small reduction in the size of the subband gap opened by a magnetic field applied parallel to the nanowire axis. Surprisingly, we find that metallization effects in TI nanowires can also be beneficial. Most notably, coupling to the superconductor induces a potential in the portion of the TI nanowire close to the interface with the superconductor, this breaks inversion symmetry and at finite momentum lifts the spin degeneracy of states within a subband. As such coupling to a superconductor can create or enhance the subband splitting that is key to achieving topological superconductivity. This is in stark contrast to semiconductors, where it has been shown that metallization effects always reduce the equivalent subband-splitting caused by spin-orbit coupling. We also find that in certain geometries metallization effects can reduce the critical magnetic required to enter the topological phase. We conclude that, unlike in semiconductors, the metallization effects that occur in TI nanowires can be relatively easily mitigated, for instance by modifying the geometry of the attached superconductor or by compensation of the TI material.

10 pages, 7 figures

References in corpus (8)

• Quantum Spin Hall Effect and Topological Phase Transition in HgTe Quantum Wells
• Superconducting proximity effect and Majorana fermions at the surface of a topological insulator
• Aharonov-Bohm oscillations in disordered topological insulator nanowires
• Anomalous Aharonov-Bohm conductance oscillations from topological insulator surface states
• Giant spin orbit interaction due to rotating magnetic fields in graphene nanoribbons
• Charge puddles in the bulk and on the surface of the topological insulator BiSbTeSe${}_2$ studied by scanning tunneling microscopy and optical spectroscopy
• Finite-size effects in a nanowire strongly coupled to a thin superconducting shell
• Theory of the random potential and conductivity at the surface of a topological insulator

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• Robust and fragile Majorana bound states in proximitized topological insulator nanoribbons
• Microscopic analysis of proximity-induced superconductivity and metallization effects in superconductor-germanium hole nanowires
• Long-range crossed Andreev reflection in topological insulator nanowires proximitized by a superconductor
• InP/GaSb core-shell nanowires: a novel hole-based platform with strong spin-orbit coupling for full-shell hybrid devices
• Electrostatic effects of the MnBi2Te4-superconductor hetero-structures in chiral Majorana search
• Relations between normal state nonreciprocal transport and the superconducting diode effect in the trivial and topological phases
• The electronic structure of intrinsic magnetic topological insulator MnBi2Te4 quantum wires
• In-plane magnetic field driven conductance modulations in topological insulator kinks