From Andreev to Majorana bound states in hybrid superconductor–semiconductor nanowires

Review (2020)
Author(s)

Elsa Prada (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid)

Pablo San-Jose (Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid (ICMM))

Michiel W.A. de Moor (Kavli institute of nanoscience Delft, TU Delft - QRD/Kouwenhoven Lab)

Attila Geresdi (Kavli institute of nanoscience Delft, TU Delft - QRD/Geresdi Lab)

Eduardo J.H. Lee (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid)

Jelena Klinovaja (University of Basel)

Daniel Loss (University of Basel)

Jesper Nygård (University of Copenhagen)

Ramón Aguado (Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid (ICMM))

Leo P. Kouwenhoven (TU Delft - QN/Kouwenhoven Lab, Kavli institute of nanoscience Delft)

Research Group
QRD/Kouwenhoven Lab
DOI related publication
https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-020-0228-y
More Info
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Publication Year
2020
Language
English
Research Group
QRD/Kouwenhoven Lab
Journal title
Nature Reviews Physics
Issue number
10
Volume number
2
Pages (from-to)
575-594
Downloads counter
351

Abstract

Inhomogeneous superconductors can host electronic excitations, known as Andreev bound states (ABSs), below the superconducting energy gap. With the advent of topological superconductivity, a new kind of zero-energy ABS with exotic qualities, known as a Majorana bound state (MBS), has been discovered. A special property of MBS wavefunctions is their non-locality, which, together with non-Abelian braiding, is the key to their promise in topological quantum computation. We focus on hybrid superconductor–semiconductor nanowires as a flexible and promising experimental platform to realize one-dimensional topological superconductivity and MBSs. We review the main properties of ABSs and MBSs, state-of-the-art techniques for their detection and theoretical progress beyond minimal models, including different types of robust zero modes that may emerge without a band-topological transition.

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