Splitting of a Cooper Pair by a Pair of Majorana Bound States

Journal Article · Fri Sep 19 00:00:00 EDT 2008 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.101.120403· OSTI ID:21179716

Nilsson, Johan; Akhmerov, A R; Beenakker, C W. J. ^[1]

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1. Instituut-Lorentz, Universiteit Leiden, P.O. Box 9506, 2300 RA Leiden (Netherlands)

We propose a method to probe the nonlocality of a pair of Majorana bound states by crossed Andreev reflection, which is the injection of an electron into one bound state followed by the emission of a hole by the other (equivalent to the splitting of a Cooper pair). We find that, at sufficiently low excitation energies, this nonlocal scattering process dominates over local Andreev reflection involving a single bound state. As a consequence, the low-temperature and low-frequency fluctuations {delta}I{sub i} of currents into the two bound states i=1, 2 are maximally correlated: {delta}I{sub 1}{delta}I{sub 2}={delta}I{sub i}{sup 2}.

• OSTI ID: 21179716
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 101, Issue 12; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.120403; (c) 2008 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0031-9007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
BOUND STATE
COOPER PAIRS
ELECTRONS
EXCITATION
HOLES
REFLECTION