TY - JOUR
T1 - From Andreev to Majorana bound states in hybrid superconductor–semiconductor nanowires
AU - Prada, Elsa
AU - San-Jose, Pablo
AU - de Moor, Michiel W.A.
AU - Geresdi, Attila
AU - Lee, Eduardo J.H.
AU - Klinovaja, Jelena
AU - Loss, Daniel
AU - Nygård, Jesper
AU - Aguado, Ramón
AU - Kouwenhoven, Leo P.
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - Inhomogeneous superconductors can host electronic excitations, known as Andreev bound states (ABSs), below the superconducting energy gap. With the advent of topological superconductivity, a new kind of zero-energy ABS with exotic qualities, known as a Majorana bound state (MBS), has been discovered. A special property of MBS wavefunctions is their non-locality, which, together with non-Abelian braiding, is the key to their promise in topological quantum computation. We focus on hybrid superconductor–semiconductor nanowires as a flexible and promising experimental platform to realize one-dimensional topological superconductivity and MBSs. We review the main properties of ABSs and MBSs, state-of-the-art techniques for their detection and theoretical progress beyond minimal models, including different types of robust zero modes that may emerge without a band-topological transition.
AB - Inhomogeneous superconductors can host electronic excitations, known as Andreev bound states (ABSs), below the superconducting energy gap. With the advent of topological superconductivity, a new kind of zero-energy ABS with exotic qualities, known as a Majorana bound state (MBS), has been discovered. A special property of MBS wavefunctions is their non-locality, which, together with non-Abelian braiding, is the key to their promise in topological quantum computation. We focus on hybrid superconductor–semiconductor nanowires as a flexible and promising experimental platform to realize one-dimensional topological superconductivity and MBSs. We review the main properties of ABSs and MBSs, state-of-the-art techniques for their detection and theoretical progress beyond minimal models, including different types of robust zero modes that may emerge without a band-topological transition.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85091277811&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s42254-020-0228-y
DO - 10.1038/s42254-020-0228-y
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85091277811
SN - 2522-5820
VL - 2
SP - 575
EP - 594
JO - Nature Reviews Physics
JF - Nature Reviews Physics
IS - 10
ER -