Probing the Majorana bound states in a hybrid nanowire double-quantum-dot system by scanning tunneling microscopy

doi:10.1088/1674-1056/ab8889

Abstract We propose an interferometer composing of a scanning tunneling microscope (STM), double quantum dots (DQDs), and a semiconductor nanowire carrying Majorana bound states (MBSs) at its ends induced by the proximity effect of an s-wave superconductor, to probe the existence of the MBSs in the dots. Our results show that when the energy levels of DQDs are aligned to the energy of MBSs, the zero-energy spectral functions of DQDs are always equal to 1/2, which indicates the formation of the MBSs in the DQDs and is also responsible for the zero-bias conductance peak. Our findings suggest that the spectral functions of the DQDs may be an excellent and convenient quantity for detecting the formation and stability of the spatially separated MBSs in quantum dots.

Keywords: quantum dot scanning tunneling microscopy Majorana bound states

Received: 08 January 2020
Revised: 07 April 2020
Accepted manuscript online:

PACS:	73.21.La	(Quantum dots)
	68.37.Ef	(Scanning tunneling microscopy (including chemistry induced with STM))
	05.60.Gg	(Quantum transport)

Fund: Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11564029 and 11675023), the Natural Science Foundation of Inner Mongolia, China (Grant No. 2017MS0112), the Science Foundation for Excellent Youth Scholors of Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology, China (Grant No. 2017YQL06), the Initial Project of UEST of China, Zhongshan Institute (Grant No. 415YKQ02), the Science and Technology Bureau of Zhongshan City, China (Grant Nos. 2017B1116 and 2017B1016), and the Innovation Team of Zhongshan City, China (Grant No. 180809162197886).

Corresponding Authors: Ping Zhang
E-mail: fu_zhenguo@iapcm.ac.cn;zhang_ping@iapcm.ac.cn

Cite this article:

Jia Liu(刘佳), Ke-Man Li(李科曼), Feng Chi(迟锋), Zhen-Guo Fu(付振国), Yue-Fei Hou(侯跃飞), Zhigang Wang(王志刚), Ping Zhang(张平) Probing the Majorana bound states in a hybrid nanowire double-quantum-dot system by scanning tunneling microscopy 2020 Chin. Phys. B 29 077302

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Probing the Majorana bound states in a hybrid nanowire double-quantum-dot system by scanning tunneling microscopy

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