Nearly quantized conductance plateau of vortex zero mode in an iron-based superconductor

Zhu, Shiyu; Kong, Lingyuan; Cao, Lu; Chen, Hui; Papaj, Michał; Du, Shixuan; Xing, Yuqing; Liu, Wenyao; Wang, Dongfei; Shen, Chengmin; Yang, Fazhi; Schneeloch, John; Zhong, Ruidan; Gu, Genda; Fu, Liang; Zhang, Yu-Yang; Ding, Hong; Gao, Hong-Jun

doi:10.1126/science.aax0274

Title: Nearly quantized conductance plateau of vortex zero mode in an iron-based superconductor

Journal Article · 12 December 2019 · Science

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aax0274 · OSTI ID:1579493

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Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China)
Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China); Songshan Lake Materials Lab., Dongguan (China)
Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)

Majorana zero modes (MZMs) are spatially-localized zero-energy fractional quasiparticles with non-Abelian braiding statistics that hold promise for topological quantum computing. Owing to the particle-antiparticle equivalence, MZMs reflect quantized conductance at low temperature. By utilizing variable-tunnel-coupled scanning tunneling spectroscopy, we study tunneling conductance of vortex bound states on FeTe_0.55Se_0.45superconductors. Here, we report observations of conductance plateaus as a function of tunnel coupling for zero-energy vortex bound states with values close to or even reaching the 2e²/h quantum conductance (here eis the electron charge and h is Planck’s constant). In contrast, no plateaus were observed on either finite energy vortex bound states or in the continuum of electronic states outside the superconducting gap. This behavior of the zero-mode conductance confirms the existence of MZMs in FeTe_0.55Se_0.45.

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Research Organization:: Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0012704

OSTI ID:: 1579493

Report Number(s):: BNL-212402-2019-JAAM; TRN: US2102248

Journal Information:: Science, Vol. 367, Issue 6474; ISSN 0036-8075

Publisher:: AAASCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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