Electrically detected interferometry of Majorana fermions in a topological insulator
Preprint
- 12 March 2009
Abstract
We show how a chiral Dirac fermion (a massless electron or hole) can be converted into a pair of neutral chiral Majorana fermions (a particle equal to its own antiparticle). These two types of fermions exist on the metallic surface of a topological insulator, respectively, at a magnetic domain wall and at a magnet-superconductor interface. Interferometry of Majorana fermions is a key operation in topological quantum computation, but the detection is problematic since these particles have no charge. The Dirac-Majorana converter enables electrical detection of the interferometric signal.Keywords
All Related Versions
- Version 1, 2009-03-12, ArXiv
- Published version: Physical Review Letters, 102 (21), 216404.
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