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Abstract Chiral and helical Majorana fermions are two archetypal edge excitations in two-dimensional topological superconductors. They emerge from systems of different Altland–Zirnbauer symmetries and characterized by and topological invariants respectively. It seems improbable to tune a pair of co-propagating chiral edge modes to counter-propagate in a single system without symmetry breaking. Here, we explore the peculiar behaviors of Majorana edge modes in topological superconductors with an additional ‘mirror’ symmetry which changes the bulk topological invariant to type. A theoretical toy model describing the proximity structure of a Chern insulator and apx-wave superconductor is proposed and solved analytically to illustrate a direct transition between two topologically nontrivial phases. The weak pairing phase has two chiral Majorana edge modes, while the strong pairing phase is characterized by mirror-graded Chern number and hosts a pair of counter-propagating Majorana fermions protected by the mirror symmetry. The edge theory is worked out in detail, and implications to braiding of Majorana fermions are discussed.
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Interference of chiral Andreev edge states
The search for topological excitations such as Majorana fermions has spurred interest in the boundaries between distinct quan- tum states. Here, we explore an interface between two prototypical phases of electrons with conceptually different ground states: the integer quantum Hall insulator and the s-wave superconductor. We find clear signatures of hybridized electron and hole states similar to chiral Majorana fermions, which we refer to as chiral Andreev edge states (CAESs). These propagate along the interface in the direction determined by the magnetic field and their interference can turn an incoming electron into an out- going electron or hole, depending on the phase accumulated by the CAESs along their path. Our results demonstrate that these excitations can propagate and interfere over a significant length, opening future possibilities for their coherent manipulation.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1743907
- PAR ID:
- 10179922
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Nature Physics
- ISSN:
- 1745-2473
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-020-0898-5
