Title
Majorana splitting from critical currents in Josephson junctions
Date Issued
20 November 2017
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
San-Jose P.
Black-Schaffer A.M.
Aguado R.
Prada E.
Uppsala University
Publisher(s)
American Physical Society
Abstract
A semiconducting nanowire with strong Rashba spin-orbit coupling and coupled to a superconductor can be tuned by an external Zeeman field into a topological phase with Majorana zero modes. Here we theoretically investigate how this exotic topological superconductor phase manifests in Josephson junctions based on such proximitized nanowires. In particular, we focus on critical currents in the short junction limit (LNâ‰ξ, where LN is the junction length and ξ is the superconducting coherence length) and show that they contain important information about nontrivial topology and Majoranas. This includes signatures of the gap inversion at the topological transition and a unique oscillatory pattern that originates from Majorana interference. Interestingly, this pattern can be modified by tuning the transmission across the junction, thus providing complementary evidence of Majoranas and their energy splittings beyond standard tunnel spectroscopy experiments, while offering further tunability by virtue of the Josephson effect.
Volume
96
Issue
20
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Astronomía Física de la materia condensada
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85039710778
Source
Physical Review B
ISSN of the container
24699950
Sponsor(s)
We acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through Grant No. FIS2015-65706-P (MINECO/FEDER) (P.S.-J), No. FIS2015-64654-P (R.A.), No. FIS2016-80434-P (AEI/FEDER, EU) (E.P.) and the Ramón y Cajal programme through Grant No. RYC-2011-09345 (E.P). J.C. and A.B.S. acknowledge financial support from the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet), the Göran Gustafsson Foundation, the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF), and the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation through the Wallenberg Academy Fellows program.
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus