Majorana quasiparticles in atomic spin chains on superconductors

Abstract

For the past decade, Majorana quasiparticles have become one of the hot topics in condensed matter research. Besides the fundamental interest in the realization of particles being their own antiparticles, going back to basic concepts of elementary particle physics, Majorana quasiparticles in condensed matter systems offer exciting potential applications in topological quantum computation due to their non-Abelian quantum exchange statistics. Motivated by theoretical predictions about possible realizations of Majorana quasiparticles as zero-energy modes at boundaries of topological superconductors, experimental efforts have focussed in particular on quasi-one-dimensional semiconductor-superconductor and magnet-superconductor hybrid systems. However, an unambiguous proof of the existence of Majorana quasiparticles is still challenging and requires considerable improvements in materials science, atomic-scale characterization and control of interface quality, as well as complementary approaches of detecting various facets of Majorana quasiparticles. Bottom-up atom-by-atom fabrication of disorder-free atomic spin chains on atomically clean superconducting substrates has recently allowed deep insight into the emergence of topological sub-gap Shiba bands and associated Majorana states from the level of individual atoms up to extended chains, thereby offering the possibility for critical tests of Majorana physics in disorder-free model-type 1D hybrid systems.

28 pages, 17 figures, 4 info boxes

References in corpus (28)

• Non-Abelian Anyons and Topological Quantum Computation
• Signatures of Majorana fermions in hybrid superconductor-semiconductor nanowire devices
• Majorana Fermions and a Topological Phase Transition in Semiconductor-Superconductor Heterostructures
• Evidence of Majorana fermions in an Al - InAs nanowire topological superconductor
• Observation of Majorana Fermions in Ferromagnetic Atomic Chains on a Superconductor
• Observation of Majorana Fermions in a Nb-InSb Nanowire-Nb Hybrid Quantum Device
• Majorana bound states in a coupled quantum-dot hybrid-nanowire system
• Colloquium: Majorana Fermions in nuclear, particle and solid-state physics
• Non-Abelian quantum order in spin-orbit-coupled semiconductors: The search for topological Majorana particles in solid state systems
• Measurement-Only Topological Quantum Computation
• Distinguishing a Majorana zero mode using spin resolved measurements
• Spin-selective Peierls transition in interacting one-dimensional conductors with spin-orbit interaction
• Topological Superconductivity induced by Ferromagnetic Metal Chains
• Strong localization of Majorana end states in chains of magnetic adatoms
• Orbital Picture of Yu-Shiba-Rusinov Multiplets
• Topological Yu-Shiba-Rusinov chain from spin-orbit coupling
• The sign of the overlap of HFB wave functions
• Measurement-Only Topological Quantum Computation via Anyonic Interferometry
• Majorana Fermions in Chiral Topological Ferromagnetic Nanowires
• Spin-polarized Yu-Shiba-Rusinov states in an iron based superconductor
• Majorana fermions in ferromagnetic chains on the surface of bulk spin-orbit coupled $s$-wave superconductors
• Shortcuts to nonabelian braiding
• Majorana Braiding Dynamics on Nanowires
• Topologically protected quantum gates for computation with non-Abelian anyons in the Pfaffian quantum Hall state
• Towards a universal set of topologically protected gates for quantum computation with Pfaffian qubits
• Correlating Josephson supercurrents and Shiba states in quantum spins unconventionally coupled to superconductors
• Coupling of Coexisting Non-Collinear Spin States in the Fe Monolayer on Re(0001)
• Majorana phase-gate based on the geometric phase