Electrical Access to Ising Anyons in Kitaev Spin Liquids

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how electric charge distributions and local electric fields in Kitaev spin liquids can be used to detect and manipulate Ising anyons, revealing observable signatures of Majorana zero modes.

Contribution

It introduces a method to detect and stabilize Ising anyons in Kitaev spin liquids via electric charge profiles and surface probe techniques.

Findings

Charge density profiles reveal $ ext{Z}_2$ vortices.

Bias voltages can stabilize Ising anyons at specific locations.

Majorana signatures are observable in energy absorption spectroscopy.

Abstract

We show that spin-spin correlations in a non-Abelian Kitaev spin liquid are associated with a characteristic inhomogeneous charge density distribution in the vicinity of $\mathbb{Z}_2$ vortices. This density profile and the corresponding local electric fields are observable, e.g., by means of surface probe techniques. Conversely, by applying bias voltages to several probe tips, one can stabilize Ising anyons ($\mathbb{Z}_2$ vortices harboring a Majorana zero mode) at designated positions, where we predict a clear Majorana signature in energy absorption spectroscopy.