Recently, the search for Majorana fermions (MFs) has become one of the most important and exciting issues in condensed matter physics since such an exotic quasiparticle is expected to potentially give rise to unprecedented quantum phenomena whose fun
ctional properties will be used to develop future quantum technology. Theoretically, the MFs may reside in various types of topological superconductor materials that is characterized by the topologically protected gapless surface state which are essentially an Andreev bound state. Superconducting doped topological insulators and topological crystalline insulators are promising candidates to harbor the MFs. In this review, we discuss recent progress and understanding on the research of MFs based on time-reversal-invariant superconducting topological materials to deepen our understanding and have a better outlook on both the search for and realization of MFs in these systems. We also discuss some advantages of these bulk systems to realize MFs including remarkable superconducting robustness against nonmagnetic impurities.
The tunability of the chemical potential for a wide range encompassing the Dirac point is important for many future devices based on topological insulators. Here we report a method to fabricate highly efficient top gates on epitaxially grown (Bi_{1-x
}Sb_x)2Te3 topological insulator thin films without degrading the film quality. By combining an in situ deposited Al2O3 capping layer and a SiN_x dielectric layer deposited at low temperature, we were able to protect the films from degradation during the fabrication processes. We demonstrate that by using this top gate, the carriers in the top surface can be efficiently tuned from n- to p-type. We also show that magnetotransport properties give evidence for decoupled transport through top and bottom surfaces for the entire range of gate voltage, which is only possible in truly bulk-insulating samples.
We report measurements of multi-path transport through a triple quantum dot (TQD) in the few-electron regime using a GaAs three-terminal device with a separate lead attached to each dot. When two paths reside inside the transport window and are simul
taneously spin-blockaded, the leak currents through both paths are significantly enhanced. We suggest that the transport processes in the two paths cooperate to lift the spin blockade. Fine structures in transport spectra indicate that different kinds of cooperative mechanisms are involved, depending on the details of the three-electron spin states governed by the size of exchange splitting relative to nuclear spin fluctuations. Our results indicate that a variety of correlation phenomena can be explored in three-terminal TQDs.
We measure the transmission phase of a quantum point contact (QPC) at a low carrier density in which electron interaction is expected to play an important role and anomalous behaviors are observed. In the first conductance plateau, the transmission p
hase shifts monotonically as the carrier density is decreased by the gate voltage. When the conductance starts to decrease, in what is often called the 0.7 regime, the phase exhibits an anomalous increase compared with the noninteracting model. The observation implies an increase in the wave vector as the carrier density is decreased, suggesting a transition to a spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid.
The existence of topological superconductors preserving time-reversal symmetry was recently predicted, and they are expected to provide a solid-state realization of itinerant massless Majorana fermions and a route to topological quantum computation.
Their first concrete example, CuxBi2Se3, was discovered last year, but the search for new materials has so far been hindered by the lack of guiding principle. Here, we report point-contact spectroscopy experiments showing that the low-carrier-density superconductor Sn_{1-x}In_{x}Te is accompanied with surface Andreev bound states which, with the help of theoretical analysis, give evidence for odd-parity pairing and topological superconductivity. The present and previous finding of topological superconductivity in Sn_{1-x}In_{x}Te and CuxBi2Se3 demonstrates that odd-parity pairing favored by strong spin-orbit coupling is a common underlying mechanism for materializing topological superconductivity.
We report a new transport feature in a GaAs lateral double quantum dot that emerges only for magnetic field sweeps and shows hysteresis due to dynamic nuclear spin polarization (DNP). This DNP signal appears in the Coulomb blockade regime by virtue o
f the finite inter-dot tunnel coupling and originates from the crossing between ground levels of the spin triplet and singlet extensively used for nuclear spin manipulations in pulsed gate experiments. The unexpectedly large signal intensity is suggestive of unbalanced DNP between the two dots, which opens up the possibility of controlling electron and nuclear spin states via DC transport.
