Majorana zero modes in nanowires with combined triangular and hexagonal geometry

Nanotechnology. 2020 Aug 28;31(35):354001. doi: 10.1088/1361-6528/ab932e. Epub 2020 May 14.

Abstract

The effects of geometry on the hosting of Majorana zero modes are explored in core-shell nanowires with a hexagonal core and a triangular shell, and vice versa. The energy interval separating electronic states localized in the corners from states localized on the sides of the shell is shown to be larger for a triangular nanowire with a hexagonal core, than a triangular one. We build the topological phase diagram for both cases and compare them to earlier work on prismatic nanowires with matching core and shell geometry. We suggest that a dual core nanowire is needed to allow for braiding operations of Majorana zero modes at the nanowire end plane.