Unconventional Josephson signatures of Majorana bound states

ORAL

Abstract

A junction between two topological superconductors containing a pair of Majorana fermions exhibits a `fractional' Josephson effect, $4\pi$ periodic in the superconductors' phase difference. An additional fractional Josephson effect, however, arises when the Majoranas are spatially separated by a superconducting barrier. This new term gives rise to a set of Shapiro steps which are essentially absent without Majorana modes and therefore provides a unique signature for these exotic states. Other new signatures associated with Majorana fermions will also be discussed.

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Authors

  • Liang Jiang

    Department of Physics, Caltech, Institute for Quantum Information, Caltech

  • David Pekker

    California Institute of Technology, Department of Physics, Caltech

  • Gil Refael

    California Institute of Technology, Department of Physics, Caltech

  • Jason Alicea

    Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, University of California, Irvine, UC Irvine

  • Yuval Oreg

    Department of Condensed Matter Physics, Weizmann Institute of Science, The Weizmann Institute of Science

  • Felix von Oppen

    Dahlem Center for Complex Quantum Systems and Fachbereich Physik, Freie Universitat Berlin, Freie Universitt Berlin