Finite temperature effects on Majorana bound states in chiral p-wave superconductors

Henrik Schou Røising, Roni Ilan, Tobias Meng, Steven H. Simon, Felix Flicker

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

We study Majorana modes bound to vortex cores in a chiral p-wave superconductor at temperatures non-negligible compared to the superconducting gap. Thermal occupation of Caroli de Gennes-Matricon (CdGM) states, below the full gap, causes the free energy difference between the two fermionic parity sectors to decay algebraically with increasing temperature. The power law acquires an additional factor of T−1 for each bound state thermally excited. The zero-temperature result is exponentially recovered well below the minigap (lowest-lying CdGM level). Our results suggest that temperatures larger than the minigap may not be disastrous for topological quantum computation. We discuss the prospect of precision measurements of pinning forces on vortices as a readout scheme for Majorana qubits.

Original languageEnglish
JournalSciPost Physics
Volume6
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - May 2019

Funding

FundersFunder number
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research CouncilEP/I031014/1, EP/N01930X/1
Deutsche ForschungsgemeinschaftME 4844/1-1, SFB 1143

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