Observation of conductance plateau of Majorana zero modes in Fe(Te,Se)

ORAL

Abstract


Recently, iron-based superconductor turns to be a promising platform for studying Majorana quasiparticles. The sharp and isolated zero-bias conductance peaks (ZBCPs) were observed clearly by high-resolution scanning tunneling microscopy. The wavefucntion behavior of the ZBCPs and the global behavior of vortex bound states series were well studied. It implies that the observed ZBCPs are most probably Majorana zero modes (MZMs), and its topological nature renders the global π-phase shift of vortex bounds states.

There is another long-sought-after fingerprint for MZMs, i.e. 2e2/h-quantized Majorana conductance induced by resonant Andreev reflection. That resonance nature is ensured by the particle-hole equivalence of MZMs and introduces a plateau feature of zero-bias conductance at zero temperature. Due to the large energy level spacing in the vortex core, the iron-based superconductor turns to be a good platform to check that expectation. Here, I will report our recent tunnel-couple tunable STM measurement on a topological vortex of Fe(Te,Se). We find that the conductance of ZBCP has plateau behavior with its value close to or even reach 2e2/h, while other finite energy vortex bound states do not have such exotic behavior.

Ref. Zhu*, Kong*, Cao*, Chen* et al. arXiv: 1904.06124.

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Presenters

  • Lingyuan Kong

    • Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Authors

  • Lingyuan Kong

    • Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences

  • Shiyu Zhu

    • Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences

  • Lu Cao

    • Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences

  • Hui Chen

    • Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences

  • Michal Papaj

    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT

  • Shixuan Du

    • Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences

  • Yuqing Xing

    • Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences

  • Wenyao Liu

    • Chinese Academy of Sciences
    • Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences

  • Dongfei Wang

    • Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences

  • Chengmin Shen

    • Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences

  • Fazhi Yang

    • Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences

  • John Schneeloch

    • Brookhaven National Laboratory
    • Univ of Virginia
    • University of Virginia
    • Brookhaven National Lab

  • Ruidan Zhong

    • Brookhaven National Laboratory
    • Brookhaven National Lab

  • Genda Gu

    • Brookhaven National Laboratory
    • Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science Division, Brookhaven National Laboratory
    • Brookhaven national lab
    • Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science, Brookhaven National Laboratory
    • Brookhaven National Lab
    • Condensed Matter Physics and Material Science, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, United States
    • Brookhaven National Laboratories
    • Condensed Matter Physics and Material Science Division, Brookhaven National Laboratory

  • Liang Fu

    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT
    • Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT
    • Physics, MIT
    • Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    • MIT

  • Yuyang Zhang

    • Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences

  • Hong Ding

    • Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
    • Chinese Academy of Sciences

  • Hongjun Gao

    • Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
    • Institute of Physics and University of Chinese Academy of Sciences Chinese Academy of Science