Quantum engineering of Majorana quasiparticles in one-dimensional optical lattices

J Phys Condens Matter. 2018 Sep 5;30(35):355602. doi: 10.1088/1361-648X/aad659. Epub 2018 Jul 27.

Abstract

We propose a feasible way of engineering Majorana-type quasiparticles in ultracold fermionic gases on a one-dimensional (1D) optical lattice. For this purpose, imbalanced ultracold atoms interacting by the spin-orbit coupling should be hybridized with a three-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate molecular cloud. We show that the Majorana-type excitations can be created or annihilated upon constraining the profile of a trapping potential and/or an internal scattering barier. This process is modeled within the Bogoliubov-de Gennes approach. Our study is relevant also to nanoscopic 1D superconductors, where both potentials can be imposed by electrostatic means.