Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Mitigating disorder-induced zero-energy states in weakly coupled superconductor-semiconductor hybrid systems

Awoga, Oladunjoye A. LU ; Leijnse, Martin LU ; Black-Schaffer, Annica M. and Cayao, Jorge (2023) In Physical Review B 107(18).
Abstract

Disorder has appeared as one of the main mechanisms to induce topologically trivial zero-energy states in superconductor-semiconductor systems, thereby challenging the detection of topological superconductivity and Majorana bound states. Here, we demonstrate that, for disorder in any part of the system, the formation of disorder-induced trivial zero-energy states can, to a large extent, be mitigated by keeping the coupling between the semiconductor and superconductor weak. The only exception is strong disorder in the semiconductor, where instead the strong-coupling regime is somewhat more robust against disorder. Furthermore, we find that the topological phase in this weak-coupling regime is robust against disorder, with a large and... (More)

Disorder has appeared as one of the main mechanisms to induce topologically trivial zero-energy states in superconductor-semiconductor systems, thereby challenging the detection of topological superconductivity and Majorana bound states. Here, we demonstrate that, for disorder in any part of the system, the formation of disorder-induced trivial zero-energy states can, to a large extent, be mitigated by keeping the coupling between the semiconductor and superconductor weak. The only exception is strong disorder in the semiconductor, where instead the strong-coupling regime is somewhat more robust against disorder. Furthermore, we find that the topological phase in this weak-coupling regime is robust against disorder, with a large and well-defined topological gap which is highly beneficial for topological protection. Our work shows the advantages and disadvantages of weak and strong couplings under disorder, important for designing superconductor-semiconductor hybrid structures.

(Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Physical Review B
volume
107
issue
18
article number
184519
publisher
American Physical Society
external identifiers
  • scopus:85161093113
ISSN
2469-9950
DOI
10.1103/PhysRevB.107.184519
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
Publisher Copyright: © 2023 authors. Published by the American Physical Society.
id
e6b9e63b-1ebc-44b8-a940-f36252d77135
date added to LUP
2023-06-24 07:05:26
date last changed
2023-11-08 07:11:48
@article{e6b9e63b-1ebc-44b8-a940-f36252d77135,
  abstract     = {{<p>Disorder has appeared as one of the main mechanisms to induce topologically trivial zero-energy states in superconductor-semiconductor systems, thereby challenging the detection of topological superconductivity and Majorana bound states. Here, we demonstrate that, for disorder in any part of the system, the formation of disorder-induced trivial zero-energy states can, to a large extent, be mitigated by keeping the coupling between the semiconductor and superconductor weak. The only exception is strong disorder in the semiconductor, where instead the strong-coupling regime is somewhat more robust against disorder. Furthermore, we find that the topological phase in this weak-coupling regime is robust against disorder, with a large and well-defined topological gap which is highly beneficial for topological protection. Our work shows the advantages and disadvantages of weak and strong couplings under disorder, important for designing superconductor-semiconductor hybrid structures.</p>}},
  author       = {{Awoga, Oladunjoye A. and Leijnse, Martin and Black-Schaffer, Annica M. and Cayao, Jorge}},
  issn         = {{2469-9950}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{05}},
  number       = {{18}},
  publisher    = {{American Physical Society}},
  series       = {{Physical Review B}},
  title        = {{Mitigating disorder-induced zero-energy states in weakly coupled superconductor-semiconductor hybrid systems}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.107.184519}},
  doi          = {{10.1103/PhysRevB.107.184519}},
  volume       = {{107}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}