Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Majorana bound states (MBSs) located at the ends of a hybrid superconductor-semiconductor nanowire are only true zero modes if their characteristic localization length is much smaller than the nanowire length, ${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{M}\ensuremath{\ll}L$. Otherwise, their wave function overlap gives rise to a finite energy splitting that shows a characteristic oscillatory pattern $\ensuremath{\sim}{e}^{\ensuremath{-}2L/{\ensuremath{\xi}}_{M}}cos({k}_{F}L)$ versus external parameters that modify the Fermi momentum ${k}_{F}$. Detecting such ``Majorana oscillations,'' measurable through low-bias conductance, has been proposed as a strategy for Majorana detection in pristine nanowires. Here we discuss how this detection scheme does not work in full-shell hybrid nanowires, an alternative design to partial-shell nanowires in which a superconductor shell fully wraps the semiconductor core. Using microscopic models, we provide both numerical simulations for Al/InAs hybrids as well as analytical approximations in terms of general nanowire parameters. We find that Majorana oscillations with flux in full-shell nanowires are absent in a wide portion of parameter space. This absence is not a signature of nonoverlapping left- and right-end MBSs, but a consequence of the Majorana oscillation period being systematically larger than the flux window of odd Little-Parks lobes where Majorana zero-energy peaks are predicted to appear. Our results demonstrate that split near-zero modes or individual zero-energy crossings should not be dismissed as trivial even if they are found not to oscillate with flux.
Language: English
Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4402391955