Spectroscopic fingerprint of chiral Majorana modes at the edge of a quantum anomalous Hall insulator/superconductor heterostructure.

ABSTRACT: With the recent discovery of the quantum anomalous Hall insulator (QAHI), which exhibits the conductive quantum Hall edge states without external magnetic field, it becomes possible to create a topological superconductor (SC) by introducing superconductivity into these edge states. In this case, 2 distinct topological superconducting phases with 1 or 2 chiral Majorana edge modes were theoretically predicted, characterized by Chern numbers (N) of 1 and 2, respectively. We present spectroscopic evidence from Andreev reflection experiments for the presence of chiral Majorana modes in an Nb/(Cr_0.12Bi_0.26Sb_0.62)₂Te₃ heterostructure with distinct signatures attributed to 2 different topological superconducting phases. The results are in qualitatively good agreement with the theoretical predictions.

SUBMITTER: Shen J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6955289 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature