Transport properties of coupled Majorana bound states in the Coulomb blockade regime

Johan Ekström, Patrik Recher, and Thomas L. Schmidt
Phys. Rev. B 101, 195420 – Published 13 May 2020

Abstract

Topologically protected qubits based on nanostructures hosting Majorana bound states (MBSs) hold great promise for fault-tolerant quantum computing. We study the transport properties of nanowire networks hosting MBSs with a focus on the effects of the charging energy and the overlap between neighboring MBSs in short mesoscopic samples. In particular, we investigate structures hosting four MBSs such as T junctions and Majorana boxes. Using a master equation in the Markovian approximation, we discuss the leading transport processes mediated by the MBSs. Single-electron tunneling and processes involving creation and annihilation of Cooper pairs dominate in the sequential-tunneling limit. In the cotunneling regime the charge in the MBSs is fixed and transport is governed by transitions via virtual intermediate states. Our results show that four-terminal measurements in the T junction and Majorana box geometries can be useful tools for the characterization of the properties of MBSs with finite overlaps and charging energy.

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  • Received 15 November 2019
  • Revised 20 April 2020
  • Accepted 23 April 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.101.195420

©2020 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Johan Ekström1,*, Patrik Recher2,3, and Thomas L. Schmidt1

  • 1Department of Physics and Materials Science, University of Luxembourg, L-1511 Luxembourg, Luxembourg
  • 2Institute of Mathematical Physics, TU Braunschweig, D-38106 Braunschweig, Germany
  • 3Laboratory for Emerging Nanometrology Braunschweig, D-38106 Braunschweig, Germany

  • *johan.ekstrom@uni.lu

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Issue

Vol. 101, Iss. 19 — 15 May 2020

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