Fractionalization in Josephson junction arrays hinged by quantum spin Hall edges

Journal Article · Thu Apr 01 00:00:00 EDT 2010 · Physical Review. B, Condensed Matter and Materials Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVB.81.134435· OSTI ID:21366715

Cenke, Xu; Liang, Fu ^[1]

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1. Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 (United States)

We study a superconductor-ferromagnet-superconductor (SC-FM-SC) Josephson array deposited on top of a two-dimensional quantum spin Hall insulator. The Majorana bound state at the interface between SC and FM leads to charge-e tunneling between neighboring superconductor islands, in addition to the usual charge-2e Cooper pair tunneling. Moreover, because Majorana fermions encode the information of charge number parity, an exact Z{sub 2} gauge structure naturally emerges and leads to many new phases, including a deconfined phase where electrons fractionalize into charge-e bosons and topological defects. A deconfined SC-insulator transition has also been found.

• OSTI ID: 21366715
• Journal Information: Physical Review. B, Condensed Matter and Materials Physics, Vol. 81, Issue 13; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.81.134435; (c) 2010 The American Physical Society; ISSN 1098-0121
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
BOUND STATE
COOPER PAIRS
FERROMAGNETIC MATERIALS
INTERFACES
JOSEPHSON JUNCTIONS
MAJORANA THEORY
PARITY
SPIN
SUPERCONDUCTORS
TOPOLOGY
TUNNEL EFFECT
TWO-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
ANGULAR MOMENTUM
MAGNETIC MATERIALS
MATERIALS
MATHEMATICS
PARTICLE PROPERTIES
SUPERCONDUCTING JUNCTIONS