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Published November 1, 2013 | Published + Submitted
Journal Article Open

Magneto-Josephson effects and Majorana bound states in quantum wires

Abstract

A prominent signature of Majorana bound states is the exotic Josephson effects they produce, the classic example being a fractional Josephson current with 4π periodicity in the phase difference across the junction. Recent work established that topological insulator edges support a novel 'magneto-Josephson effect', whereby a dissipationless current exhibits 4π-periodic dependence also on the relative orientation of the Zeeman fields in the two banks of the junction. Here, we explore the magneto-Josephson effect in junctions based on spin–orbit-coupled quantum wires. In contrast to the topological insulator case, the periodicities of the magneto-Josephson effect no longer follow from an exact superconductor–magnetism duality of the Hamiltonian. We employ numerical calculations as well as analytical arguments to identify the domain configurations that display exotic Josephson physics for quantum-wire junctions, and elucidate the characteristic differences with the corresponding setups for topological insulators edges. To provide guidance to experiments, we also estimate the magnitude of the magneto-Josephson effects in realistic parameter regimes, and compare the Majorana-related contribution to the coexisting 2π-periodic effects emerging from non-Majorana states.

Additional Information

© 2013 Institute of Physics Ltd and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft. Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI. Received 29 April 2013. Published 1 November 2013. We thank Arbel Haim for discussions and are grateful for support from the Helmholtz Virtual Institute 'New states of matter and their excitations', SPP1285 (DFG), NSF grant DMR-1055522, ISF, BSF, a TAMU-WIS grant, NBRPC (973 program) grant 2011CBA00300 (2011CBA00301), the Alfred P Sloan Foundation, the Packard Foundation, the Humboldt Foundation, the Minerva Foundation, the Sherman Fairchild Foundation, the Lee A DuBridge Foundation, the Moore Foundation funded CEQS, the Institute for Quantum Information and Matter (IQIM), NSF Physics Frontiers Center with support of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and the Studienstiftung des dt. Volkes.

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Published - 1367-2630_15_11_115001.pdf

Submitted - 1304.7667v2.pdf

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August 19, 2023
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