Wireless Majorana Bound States: From Magnetic Tunability to Braiding

Phys Rev Lett. 2016 Aug 12;117(7):077002. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.077002. Epub 2016 Aug 12.

Abstract

We propose a versatile platform to investigate the existence of Majorana bound states (MBSs) and their non-Abelian statistics through braiding. This implementation combines a two-dimensional electron gas formed in a semiconductor quantum well grown on the surface of an s-wave superconductor with a nearby array of magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs). The underlying magnetic textures produced by MTJs provide highly controllable topological phase transitions to confine and transport MBSs in two dimensions, overcoming the requirement for a network of wires. Obtained scaling relations confirm that various semiconductor quantum well materials are suitable for this proposal.