Quest for topological superconductivity at superconductor-semiconductor interfaces

TL;DR

This paper reviews evidence for Majorana zero modes in superconductor-semiconductor nanowires, emphasizing interface quality, and explores future prospects for topological quantum computing and exotic anyons.

Contribution

It highlights the critical role of interface quality in realizing topological superconductivity and discusses pathways to observe non-Abelian anyons and connect to high energy physics.

Findings

Evidence of Majorana zero modes from tunneling spectroscopy

Importance of superconductor-semiconductor interface quality

Potential for observing non-Abelian anyons

Abstract

We analyze the evidence of Majorana zero modes in nanowires that came from tunneling spectroscopy and other experiments, and scout the path to topologically protected states that are of interest for quantum computing. We illustrate the importance of the superconductor-semiconductor interface quality and sketch out where further progress in materials science of these interfaces can take us. Finally, we discuss the prospects of observing more exotic non-Abelian anyons based on the same materials platform, and how to make connections to high energy physics.