Abstract
We consider Josephson junctions on surfaces of three dimensional topological insulator nanowires. We find that in the presence of a parallel magnetic field, short junctions on nanowires show signatures of a perfectly transmitted mode capable of supporting Majorana fermions. Such signatures appear in the currentphase relation in the presence or absence of the fermion parity anomaly, and are most striking when considering the critical current as a function of flux φ, which exhibits a peak at φ =h e 2 . The peak sharpens in the presence of disorder at low but finite chemical potentials, and can be easily disentangled from weakanti- localization effects. The peak also survives at small but finite temperatures, and represents a realistic and robust hallmark for perfect transmission and the emergence of Majorana physics inside the wire.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 053007 |
Journal | New Journal of Physics |
Volume | 16 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - May 2014 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Josephson junctions
- Majorana fermions
- perfect transmission
- topological insulators
- topological superconductivity
- transport in nanowires
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- General Physics and Astronomy