TY - JOUR
T1 - Robustness of Majorana bound states in the short-junction limit
AU - Sticlet, Doru
AU - Nijholt, Bas
AU - Akhmerov, Anton
PY - 2017/3/17
Y1 - 2017/3/17
N2 - We study the effects of strong coupling between a superconductor and a semiconductor nanowire on the creation of the Majorana bound states, when the quasiparticle dwell time in the normal part of the nanowire is much shorter than the inverse superconducting gap. This "short-junction" limit is relevant for the recent experiments using the epitaxially grown aluminum characterized by a transparent interface with the semiconductor and a small superconducting gap. We find that the small superconducting gap does not have a strong detrimental effect on the Majorana properties. Specifically, both the critical magnetic field required for creating a topological phase and the size of the Majorana bound states are independent of the superconducting gap. The critical magnetic field scales with the wire cross section, while the relative importance of the orbital and Zeeman effects of the magnetic field is controlled by the material parameters only: g factor, effective electron mass, and the semiconductor-superconductor interface transparency.
AB - We study the effects of strong coupling between a superconductor and a semiconductor nanowire on the creation of the Majorana bound states, when the quasiparticle dwell time in the normal part of the nanowire is much shorter than the inverse superconducting gap. This "short-junction" limit is relevant for the recent experiments using the epitaxially grown aluminum characterized by a transparent interface with the semiconductor and a small superconducting gap. We find that the small superconducting gap does not have a strong detrimental effect on the Majorana properties. Specifically, both the critical magnetic field required for creating a topological phase and the size of the Majorana bound states are independent of the superconducting gap. The critical magnetic field scales with the wire cross section, while the relative importance of the orbital and Zeeman effects of the magnetic field is controlled by the material parameters only: g factor, effective electron mass, and the semiconductor-superconductor interface transparency.
UR - http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:fb627d87-f6b5-453c-8e8b-88817b6c6065
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85015894001&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevB.95.115421
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevB.95.115421
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85015894001
SN - 1098-0121
VL - 95
JO - Physical Review B (Condensed Matter and Materials Physics)
JF - Physical Review B (Condensed Matter and Materials Physics)
IS - 11
M1 - 115421
ER -