Phase coherence and Andreev reflection in topological insulator devices

Finck, A. D. K.; Kurter, C.; Hor, Y. S.; Van Harlingen, D. J.

doi:10.1103/PhysRevX.4.041022

Title: Phase coherence and Andreev reflection in topological insulator devices

Journal Article · Tue Nov 04 00:00:00 EST 2014 · Physical Review. X

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.4.041022· OSTI ID:1221968

Finck, A. D. K. ^[1]; Kurter, C. ^[1]; Hor, Y. S. ^[2]; Van Harlingen, D. J. ^[1]

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL (United States)
Missouri Univ. of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO (United States)

Topological insulators (TIs) have attracted immense interest because they host helical surface states. Protected by time-reversal symmetry, they are robust to nonmagnetic disorder. When superconductivity is induced in these helical states, they are predicted to emulate p-wave pairing symmetry, with Majorana states bound to vortices. Majorana bound states possess non-Abelian exchange statistics that can be probed through interferometry. Here, we take a significant step towards Majorana interferometry by observing pronounced Fabry-Pérot oscillations in a TI sandwiched between a superconducting and a normal lead. For energies below the superconducting gap, we observe a doubling in the frequency of the oscillations, arising from an additional phase from Andreev reflection. When a magnetic field is applied perpendicular to the TI surface, a number of very sharp and gate-tunable conductance peaks appear at or near zero energy, which has consequences for interpreting spectroscopic probes of Majorana fermions. Our results show that TIs are a promising platform for exploring phase-coherent transport in a solid-state system.

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Research Organization:: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: DMR-12-55607; FG02-07ER46453; FG02-07ER46471

OSTI ID:: 1221968

Journal Information:: Physical Review. X, Vol. 4, Issue 4; ISSN 2160-3308

Publisher:: American Physical SocietyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 41 works

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