Robustness of vortex-bound Majorana zero modes against correlated disorder
Abstract
Here, we investigate the effect of correlated disorder on Majorana zero modes (MZMs) bound to magnetic vortices in two-dimensional topological superconductors. By starting from a lattice model of interacting fermions with a px±ipy superconducting ground state in the disorder-free limit, we use perturbation theory to describe the enhancement of the Majorana localization length at weak disorder and a self-consistent numerical solution to understand the breakdown of the MZMs at strong disorder. We find that correlated disorder has a much stronger effect on the MZMs than uncorrelated disorder and that it is most detrimental if the disorder correlation length ℓ is on the same order as the superconducting coherence length ξ. In contrast, MZMs can survive stronger disorder for ℓ $$\ll$$ξ as random variations cancel each other within the length scale of ξ, while an MZM may survive up to very strong disorder for ℓ$$\gg$$ξ if it is located in a favorable domain of the given disorder realization.
- Authors:
-
[1];
[2];
- Morehead State Univ., KY (United States); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1817573
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC05-00OR22725
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Physical Review. B
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 104; Journal Issue: 2; Journal ID: ISSN 2469-9950
- Publisher:
- American Physical Society (APS)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY; Majorana bound states; vortices in superconductors; disordered systems; topological superconductors; Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations
Citation Formats
Christian, Casey, Dumitrescu, Eugene F., and Halasz, Gabor. Robustness of vortex-bound Majorana zero modes against correlated disorder. United States: N. p., 2021.
Web. doi:10.1103/physrevb.104.l020505.
Christian, Casey, Dumitrescu, Eugene F., & Halasz, Gabor. Robustness of vortex-bound Majorana zero modes against correlated disorder. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.104.l020505
Christian, Casey, Dumitrescu, Eugene F., and Halasz, Gabor. Mon .
"Robustness of vortex-bound Majorana zero modes against correlated disorder". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.104.l020505. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1817573.
@article{osti_1817573,
title = {Robustness of vortex-bound Majorana zero modes against correlated disorder},
author = {Christian, Casey and Dumitrescu, Eugene F. and Halasz, Gabor},
abstractNote = {Here, we investigate the effect of correlated disorder on Majorana zero modes (MZMs) bound to magnetic vortices in two-dimensional topological superconductors. By starting from a lattice model of interacting fermions with a px±ipy superconducting ground state in the disorder-free limit, we use perturbation theory to describe the enhancement of the Majorana localization length at weak disorder and a self-consistent numerical solution to understand the breakdown of the MZMs at strong disorder. We find that correlated disorder has a much stronger effect on the MZMs than uncorrelated disorder and that it is most detrimental if the disorder correlation length ℓ is on the same order as the superconducting coherence length ξ. In contrast, MZMs can survive stronger disorder for ℓ $\ll$ξ as random variations cancel each other within the length scale of ξ, while an MZM may survive up to very strong disorder for ℓ$\gg$ξ if it is located in a favorable domain of the given disorder realization.},
doi = {10.1103/physrevb.104.l020505},
journal = {Physical Review. B},
number = 2,
volume = 104,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Jul 12 00:00:00 EDT 2021},
month = {Mon Jul 12 00:00:00 EDT 2021}
}
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