Signature of a pair of Majorana zero modes in superconducting gold surface states
Abstract
Under certain conditions, a fermion in a superconductor can separate in space into two parts known as Majorana zero modes, which are immune to decoherence from local noise sources and are attractive building blocks for quantum computers. Promising experimental progress has been made to demonstrate Majorana zero modes in materials with strong spin–orbit coupling proximity coupled to superconductors. Here we report signatures of Majorana zero modes in a material platform utilizing the surface states of gold. Using scanning tunneling microscope to probe EuS islands grown on top of gold nanowires, we observe two well-separated zero-bias tunneling conductance peaks aligned along the direction of the applied magnetic field, as expected for a pair of Majorana zero modes. This platform has the advantage of having a robust energy scale and the possibility of realizing complex designs using lithographic methods.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Apr 06, 2020
- Source ID
- 10.1073/pnas.1919753117
Entities
People
- Jagadeesh Moodera
- Kam Tuen Law
- Patrick A. Lee
- Peng Wei
- Sujit Manna
- Yingming Xie
Organizations
- Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
- Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
- John Templeton Foundation
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- National Science Foundation
- Office of Basic Energy Sciences
- Office of Naval Research
- University of California