Tunneling spectrum of a pinned vortex with a robust Majorana state

TL;DR

This paper proposes a heterostructure with a vortex pinning hole supporting a Majorana fermion, and demonstrates how tunneling spectroscopy can detect this state through a magnetic-field-dependent zero-bias anomaly.

Contribution

It introduces a specific heterostructure setup for Majorana fermion detection and analyzes the tunneling spectrum to distinguish Majorana states from excited states.

Findings

Majorana fermion manifests as a zero-bias conductance peak dependent on magnetic field.

Optimal parameters for detecting Majorana states have been identified.

Excited states spectrum differs from typical vortices, aiding in confirmation.

Abstract

We study a heterostructure which consists of a topological insulator and a superconductor with a hole. The hole pins a vortex. The system supports a robust Majorana fermion state bound to the vortex core. We investigate the possibility of using scanning tunneling spectroscopy (i) to detect the Majorana fermion in the proposed setup and (ii) to study excited states bound to the vortex core. The Majorana fermion manifests itself as a magnetic-field dependent zero-bias anomaly of the tunneling conductance. Optimal parameters for detecting Majorana fermions have been obtained. In the optimal regime, the Majorana fermion is separated from the excited states by a substantial gap. The number of zero-energy states equals the number of flux quanta in the hole; thus, the strength of the zero-bias anomaly depends on the magnetic field. The lowest energy excitations bound to the core are also studied. The excited states spectrum differs from the spectrum of a typical Abrikosov vortex, providing additional indirect confirmation of the Majorana state observation.