Absence of evidence for chiral Majorana modes in quantum anomalous Hall-superconductor devices
Abstract
A quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) insulator coupled to an s-wave superconductor is predicted to harbor chiral Majorana modes. A recent experiment interprets the half-quantized two-terminal conductance plateau as evidence for these modes in a millimeter-size QAH-niobium hybrid device. However, non-Majorana mechanisms can also generate similar signatures, especially in disordered samples. Here, we studied similar hybrid devices with a well-controlled and transparent interface between the superconductor and the QAH insulator. When the devices are in the QAH state with well-aligned magnetization, the two-terminal conductance is always half-quantized. Our experiment provides a comprehensive understanding of the superconducting proximity effect observed in QAH-superconductor hybrid devices and shows that the half-quantized conductance plateau is unlikely to be induced by chiral Majorana fermions in samples with a highly transparent interface.
- Publication Date:
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1580806
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0019064; FG01-08ER46531; project 3-TOP and 4TOPS
- Resource Type:
- Published Article
- Journal Name:
- Science
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Name: Science Journal Volume: 367 Journal Issue: 6473; Journal ID: ISSN 0036-8075
- Publisher:
- American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Citation Formats
Kayyalha, Morteza, Xiao, Di, Zhang, Ruoxi, Shin, Jaeho, Jiang, Jue, Wang, Fei, Zhao, Yi-Fan, Xiao, Run, Zhang, Ling, Fijalkowski, Kajetan M., Mandal, Pankaj, Winnerlein, Martin, Gould, Charles, Li, Qi, Molenkamp, Laurens W., Chan, Moses H. W., Samarth, Nitin, and Chang, Cui-Zu. Absence of evidence for chiral Majorana modes in quantum anomalous Hall-superconductor devices. United States: N. p., 2020.
Web. doi:10.1126/science.aax6361.
Kayyalha, Morteza, Xiao, Di, Zhang, Ruoxi, Shin, Jaeho, Jiang, Jue, Wang, Fei, Zhao, Yi-Fan, Xiao, Run, Zhang, Ling, Fijalkowski, Kajetan M., Mandal, Pankaj, Winnerlein, Martin, Gould, Charles, Li, Qi, Molenkamp, Laurens W., Chan, Moses H. W., Samarth, Nitin, & Chang, Cui-Zu. Absence of evidence for chiral Majorana modes in quantum anomalous Hall-superconductor devices. United States. doi:10.1126/science.aax6361.
Kayyalha, Morteza, Xiao, Di, Zhang, Ruoxi, Shin, Jaeho, Jiang, Jue, Wang, Fei, Zhao, Yi-Fan, Xiao, Run, Zhang, Ling, Fijalkowski, Kajetan M., Mandal, Pankaj, Winnerlein, Martin, Gould, Charles, Li, Qi, Molenkamp, Laurens W., Chan, Moses H. W., Samarth, Nitin, and Chang, Cui-Zu. Thu .
"Absence of evidence for chiral Majorana modes in quantum anomalous Hall-superconductor devices". United States. doi:10.1126/science.aax6361.
@article{osti_1580806,
title = {Absence of evidence for chiral Majorana modes in quantum anomalous Hall-superconductor devices},
author = {Kayyalha, Morteza and Xiao, Di and Zhang, Ruoxi and Shin, Jaeho and Jiang, Jue and Wang, Fei and Zhao, Yi-Fan and Xiao, Run and Zhang, Ling and Fijalkowski, Kajetan M. and Mandal, Pankaj and Winnerlein, Martin and Gould, Charles and Li, Qi and Molenkamp, Laurens W. and Chan, Moses H. W. and Samarth, Nitin and Chang, Cui-Zu},
abstractNote = {A quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) insulator coupled to an s-wave superconductor is predicted to harbor chiral Majorana modes. A recent experiment interprets the half-quantized two-terminal conductance plateau as evidence for these modes in a millimeter-size QAH-niobium hybrid device. However, non-Majorana mechanisms can also generate similar signatures, especially in disordered samples. Here, we studied similar hybrid devices with a well-controlled and transparent interface between the superconductor and the QAH insulator. When the devices are in the QAH state with well-aligned magnetization, the two-terminal conductance is always half-quantized. Our experiment provides a comprehensive understanding of the superconducting proximity effect observed in QAH-superconductor hybrid devices and shows that the half-quantized conductance plateau is unlikely to be induced by chiral Majorana fermions in samples with a highly transparent interface.},
doi = {10.1126/science.aax6361},
journal = {Science},
number = 6473,
volume = 367,
place = {United States},
year = {2020},
month = {1}
}
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
DOI: 10.1126/science.aax6361
DOI: 10.1126/science.aax6361
Other availability
Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journal
Save to My Library
You must Sign In or Create an Account in order to save documents to your library.
Works referenced in this record:
Inducing superconducting correlation in quantum Hall edge states
journal, April 2017
- Lee, Gil-Ho; Huang, Ko-Fan; Efetov, Dmitri K.
- Nature Physics, Vol. 13, Issue 7
Chiral topological superconductor from the quantum Hall state
journal, November 2010
- Qi, Xiao-Liang; Hughes, Taylor L.; Zhang, Shou-Cheng
- Physical Review B, Vol. 82, Issue 18
Topological insulators and superconductors
journal, October 2011
- Qi, Xiao-Liang; Zhang, Shou-Cheng
- Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol. 83, Issue 4
Chiral topological superconductor and half-integer conductance plateau from quantum anomalous Hall plateau transition
journal, August 2015
- Wang, Jing; Zhou, Quan; Lian, Biao
- Physical Review B, Vol. 92, Issue 6
Disorder-induced half-integer quantized conductance plateau in quantum anomalous Hall insulator-superconductor structures
journal, March 2018
- Huang, Yingyi; Setiawan, F.; Sau, Jay D.
- Physical Review B, Vol. 97, Issue 10
High-precision realization of robust quantum anomalous Hall state in a hard ferromagnetic topological insulator
journal, March 2015
- Chang, Cui-Zu; Zhao, Weiwei; Kim, Duk Y.
- Nature Materials, Vol. 14, Issue 5
Possible Topological Superconducting Phases of
journal, August 2014
- Yuan, Noah F. Q.; Mak, Kin Fai; Law, K. T.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 113, Issue 9
Majorana Fermions and a Topological Phase Transition in Semiconductor-Superconductor Heterostructures
journal, August 2010
- Lutchyn, Roman M.; Sau, Jay D.; Das Sarma, S.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 105, Issue 7
Experimental Observation of the Quantum Anomalous Hall Effect in a Magnetic Topological Insulator
journal, March 2013
- Chang, C. -Z.; Zhang, J.; Feng, X.
- Science, Vol. 340, Issue 6129
Scale-Invariant Quantum Anomalous Hall Effect in Magnetic Topological Insulators beyond the Two-Dimensional Limit
journal, September 2014
- Kou, Xufeng; Guo, Shih-Ting; Fan, Yabin
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 113, Issue 13
Current-Driven Instability of the Quantum Anomalous Hall Effect in Ferromagnetic Topological Insulators
journal, July 2017
- Kawamura, Minoru; Yoshimi, Ryutaro; Tsukazaki, Atsushi
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 119, Issue 1
Search for Majorana Fermions in Superconductors
journal, April 2013
- Beenakker, C. W. J.
- Annual Review of Condensed Matter Physics, Vol. 4, Issue 1
New directions in the pursuit of Majorana fermions in solid state systems
journal, June 2012
- Alicea, Jason
- Reports on Progress in Physics, Vol. 75, Issue 7
Realization of the Axion Insulator State in Quantum Anomalous Hall Sandwich Heterostructures
journal, January 2018
- Xiao, Di; Jiang, Jue; Shin, Jae-Ho
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 120, Issue 5
Precision measurement of the quantized anomalous Hall resistance at zero magnetic field
journal, February 2018
- Götz, Martin; Fijalkowski, Kajetan M.; Pesel, Eckart
- Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 112, Issue 7
Trajectory of the anomalous Hall effect towards the quantized state in a ferromagnetic topological insulator
journal, August 2014
- Checkelsky, J. G.; Yoshimi, R.; Tsukazaki, A.
- Nature Physics, Vol. 10, Issue 10
Chiral Majorana fermion modes in a quantum anomalous Hall insulator–superconductor structure
journal, July 2017
- He, Qing Lin; Pan, Lei; Stern, Alexander L.
- Science, Vol. 357, Issue 6348
Metal-to-insulator switching in quantum anomalous Hall states
journal, October 2015
- Kou, Xufeng; Pan, Lei; Wang, Jing
- Nature Communications, Vol. 6, Issue 1
Observation of the Zero Hall Plateau in a Quantum Anomalous Hall Insulator
journal, September 2015
- Feng, Yang; Feng, Xiao; Ou, Yunbo
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 115, Issue 12
Teoria simmetrica dell’elettrone e del positrone
journal, April 1937
- Majorana, Ettore
- Il Nuovo Cimento, Vol. 14, Issue 4
Non-Abelian anyons and topological quantum computation
journal, September 2008
- Nayak, Chetan; Simon, Steven H.; Stern, Ady
- Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol. 80, Issue 3
Model for a Quantum Hall Effect without Landau Levels: Condensed-Matter Realization of the "Parity Anomaly"
journal, October 1988
- Haldane, F. D. M.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 61, Issue 18
Tailoring tricolor structure of magnetic topological insulator for robust axion insulator
journal, October 2017
- Mogi, Masataka; Kawamura, Minoru; Tsukazaki, Atsushi
- Science Advances, Vol. 3, Issue 10
Role of critical current on the point-contact Andreev reflection spectra between a normal metal and a superconductor
journal, April 2004
- Sheet, Goutam; Mukhopadhyay, S.; Raychaudhuri, P.
- Physical Review B, Vol. 69, Issue 13
Paired states of fermions in two dimensions with breaking of parity and time-reversal symmetries and the fractional quantum Hall effect
journal, April 2000
- Read, N.; Green, Dmitry
- Physical Review B, Vol. 61, Issue 15
Fault-tolerant quantum computation by anyons
journal, January 2003
- Kitaev, A. Yu.
- Annals of Physics, Vol. 303, Issue 1
Superconducting Proximity Effect and Majorana Fermions at the Surface of a Topological Insulator
journal, March 2008
- Fu, Liang; Kane, C. L.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 100, Issue 9
Epitaxy and structural properties of (V,Bi,Sb) 2 Te 3 layers exhibiting the quantum anomalous Hall effect
journal, June 2017
- Winnerlein, M.; Schreyeck, S.; Grauer, S.
- Physical Review Materials, Vol. 1, Issue 1
Coincidence of superparamagnetism and perfect quantization in the quantum anomalous Hall state
journal, November 2015
- Grauer, S.; Schreyeck, S.; Winnerlein, M.
- Physical Review B, Vol. 92, Issue 20
Topological superconductivity in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides
journal, April 2017
- Hsu, Yi-Ting; Vaezi, Abolhassan; Fischer, Mark H.
- Nature Communications, Vol. 8, Issue 1
The superconductivity of and the physics of spin-triplet pairing
journal, May 2003
- Mackenzie, Andrew Peter; Maeno, Yoshiteru
- Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol. 75, Issue 2
Conductance Plateau without 1D Chiral Majorana Fermions
journal, March 2018
- Ji, Wenjie; Wen, Xiao-Gang
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 120, Issue 10
Introduction to Superconductivity
journal, October 1996
- Tinkham, Michael; Emery, Victor
- Physics Today, Vol. 49, Issue 10
Part-per-million quantization and current-induced breakdown of the quantum anomalous Hall effect
journal, August 2018
- Fox, E. J.; Rosen, I. T.; Yang, Yanfei
- Physical Review B, Vol. 98, Issue 7
Large discrete jumps observed in the transition between Chern states in a ferromagnetic topological insulator
journal, July 2016
- Liu, Minhao; Wang, Wudi; Richardella, Anthony R.
- Science Advances, Vol. 2, Issue 7
Transition from metallic to tunneling regimes in superconducting microconstrictions: Excess current, charge imbalance, and supercurrent conversion
journal, April 1982
- Blonder, G. E.; Tinkham, M.; Klapwijk, T. M.
- Physical Review B, Vol. 25, Issue 7
Zero-Field Dissipationless Chiral Edge Transport and the Nature of Dissipation in the Quantum Anomalous Hall State
journal, July 2015
- Chang, Cui-Zu; Zhao, Weiwei; Kim, Duk Y.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 115, Issue 5
Nonabelions in the fractional quantum hall effect
journal, August 1991
- Moore, Gregory; Read, Nicholas
- Nuclear Physics B, Vol. 360, Issue 2-3