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Title: Chiral Majorana fermion modes in a quantum anomalous Hall insulator–superconductor structure

Abstract

Majorana fermion is a hypothetical particle that is its own antiparticle. We report transport measurements that suggest the existence of one-dimensional chiral Majorana fermion modes in the hybrid system of a quantum anomalous Hall insulator thin film coupled with a superconductor. As the external magnetic field is swept, half-integer quantized conductance plateaus are observed at the locations of magnetization reversals, giving a distinct signature of the Majorana fermion modes. This transport signature is reproducible over many magnetic field sweeps and appears at different temperatures. This finding may open up an avenue to control Majorana fermions for implementing robust topological quantum computing.

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [1];  [1]; ORCiD logo [4];  [5]; ORCiD logo [5];  [6];  [1]; ORCiD logo [7]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1];  [1]; ORCiD logo [5]; ORCiD logo [3];  [2]; ORCiD logo [8]
  1. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States). Dept. of Electrical Engineering, and Computer Engineering, Dept. of Physics, and Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering
  2. Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
  3. Univ. of California, Davis, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics
  4. Fudan Univ., Shanghai (China). State Key Lab. of Surface Physics, Dept. of Physics; Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Dept. of Physics
  5. Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Dept. of Physics
  6. Florida State Univ., Tallahassee, FL (United States). National High Magnetic Field Lab. (MagLab)
  7. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States). Dept. of Electrical Engineering, and Computer Engineering, Dept. of Physics, and Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering; ShanghaiTech Univ., Shanghai (China). School of Information Science and Technology
  8. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States). Dept. of Electrical Engineering, and Computer Engineering, Dept. of Physics, and Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering; King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), Riyadh (Saudi Arabia). Center of Excellence in Green Nanotechnology
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE; National Science Foundation (NSF)
OSTI Identifier:
1374388
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-76SF00515
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Science
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 357; Journal Issue: 6348; Journal ID: ISSN 0036-8075
Publisher:
AAAS
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY

Citation Formats

He, Qing Lin, Pan, Lei, Stern, Alexander L., Burks, Edward C., Che, Xiaoyu, Yin, Gen, Wang, Jing, Lian, Biao, Zhou, Quan, Choi, Eun Sang, Murata, Koichi, Kou, Xufeng, Chen, Zhijie, Nie, Tianxiao, Shao, Qiming, Fan, Yabin, Zhang, Shou-Cheng, Liu, Kai, Xia, Jing, and Wang, Kang L. Chiral Majorana fermion modes in a quantum anomalous Hall insulator–superconductor structure. United States: N. p., 2017. Web. doi:10.1126/science.aag2792.
He, Qing Lin, Pan, Lei, Stern, Alexander L., Burks, Edward C., Che, Xiaoyu, Yin, Gen, Wang, Jing, Lian, Biao, Zhou, Quan, Choi, Eun Sang, Murata, Koichi, Kou, Xufeng, Chen, Zhijie, Nie, Tianxiao, Shao, Qiming, Fan, Yabin, Zhang, Shou-Cheng, Liu, Kai, Xia, Jing, & Wang, Kang L. Chiral Majorana fermion modes in a quantum anomalous Hall insulator–superconductor structure. United States. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aag2792
He, Qing Lin, Pan, Lei, Stern, Alexander L., Burks, Edward C., Che, Xiaoyu, Yin, Gen, Wang, Jing, Lian, Biao, Zhou, Quan, Choi, Eun Sang, Murata, Koichi, Kou, Xufeng, Chen, Zhijie, Nie, Tianxiao, Shao, Qiming, Fan, Yabin, Zhang, Shou-Cheng, Liu, Kai, Xia, Jing, and Wang, Kang L. Fri . "Chiral Majorana fermion modes in a quantum anomalous Hall insulator–superconductor structure". United States. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aag2792. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1374388.
@article{osti_1374388,
title = {Chiral Majorana fermion modes in a quantum anomalous Hall insulator–superconductor structure},
author = {He, Qing Lin and Pan, Lei and Stern, Alexander L. and Burks, Edward C. and Che, Xiaoyu and Yin, Gen and Wang, Jing and Lian, Biao and Zhou, Quan and Choi, Eun Sang and Murata, Koichi and Kou, Xufeng and Chen, Zhijie and Nie, Tianxiao and Shao, Qiming and Fan, Yabin and Zhang, Shou-Cheng and Liu, Kai and Xia, Jing and Wang, Kang L.},
abstractNote = {Majorana fermion is a hypothetical particle that is its own antiparticle. We report transport measurements that suggest the existence of one-dimensional chiral Majorana fermion modes in the hybrid system of a quantum anomalous Hall insulator thin film coupled with a superconductor. As the external magnetic field is swept, half-integer quantized conductance plateaus are observed at the locations of magnetization reversals, giving a distinct signature of the Majorana fermion modes. This transport signature is reproducible over many magnetic field sweeps and appears at different temperatures. This finding may open up an avenue to control Majorana fermions for implementing robust topological quantum computing.},
doi = {10.1126/science.aag2792},
journal = {Science},
number = 6348,
volume = 357,
place = {United States},
year = {2017},
month = {7}
}

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