Detecting Majorana Bound States by Nanomechanics

TL;DR

This paper proposes a nanomechanical detection method for Majorana bound states in topological superconductors, using a vibrating electrode to measure conductance and identify these states.

Contribution

It introduces a novel nanomechanical approach to detect Majorana bound states through nonlinear conductance measurements.

Findings

Nonlinear differential conductance reveals Majorana states.

Nanomechanical detection offers a new identification method.

The scheme is applicable to semiconducting wires on superconductors.

Abstract

We propose a nanomechanical detection scheme for Majorana bound states, which have been predicted to exist at the edges of a one-dimensional topological superconductor, implemented, for instance, using a semiconducting wire placed on top of an s-wave superconductor. The detector makes use of an oscillating electrode, which can be realized using a doubly clamped metallic beam, tunnel coupled to one edge of the topological superconductor. We find that a measurement of the nonlinear differential conductance provides the necessary information to uniquely identify Majorana bound states.