Directly probing the chirality of Majorana edge states

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method to directly determine the chirality of Majorana edge states in 2D topological superconductors by using polarization selective photon absorption, providing a new experimental detection technique.

Contribution

The authors propose a novel optical approach to probe and confirm the chirality of Majorana edge states in 2D topological superconductors, advancing experimental capabilities.

Findings

Photon absorption occurs only when light polarization matches Majorana chirality

Polarization selective absorption serves as evidence of chiral Majorana modes

Method enables detection and manipulation of Majorana edge states

Abstract

We propose to directly probe the chirality of Majorana edge states in 2D topological superconductors using polarization selective photon absorption. When shining circularly polarized light on a 2D topological superconductor in disk geometry, the photons can excite quasiparticles only when the polarization of the light matches the chirality of the Majorana edge states required by the angular momentum conservation. Hence one can obtain the chirality of the Majorana edge states by measuring the photon absorption rate. We show that the polarization selective photon absorption can also serve as a smoking gun evidence of the chiral Majorana edge mode. Our results pave a new way of detecting, investigating and manipulating the chiral Majorana edge states.