Abstract
The single-particle excitations of a superconductor are coherent superpositions of electrons and holes near the Fermi level, called Bogoliubov quasiparticles. They are Majorana fermions, meaning that pairs of quasiparticles can annihilate. We calculate the annihilation probability at a beam splitter for chiral quantum Hall edge states, obtaining a dependence on the phase difference of the superconductors from which the excitations originated (with the sign distinguishing singlet and triplet pairing). This provides for a nonlocal measurement of the superconducting phase in the absence of any supercurrent.
- Received 6 December 2013
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.070604
© 2014 American Physical Society