High-temperature Majorana zero modes

Abstract

We employ general arguments and numerical simulations to show that unpaired Majorana zero modes can occur in cores of Abrikosov vortices at the interface between a three-dimensional topological insulator, such as Bi2Se3, and a twisted bilayer of high-Tc cuprate superconductor, such as Bi2Sr2CaCu2O 8+δ . When the twist angle is close to 45 o the latter forms a fully gapped topological superconductor up to temperatures approaching its native Tc 90K. Majorana zero modes in these structures will be protected by large gaps and persist up to unprecedented high temperatures.

Twisted multilayer nodal superconductors

“…An interesting question concerns the creation of new heterostructures that realize an odd number of Majorana modes, either propagating along boundaries or localized in vortex cores (see for instance Ref. [43]). The limit of a large number of layers L is also of potential interest.…”

“…Advances in exfoliation and material growth techniques could potentially reveal new nodal superconductors in organics [37], quasi-2D limits of iron-based [38] or heavy-fermion [39] materials, or in transition metal dichalcogenides following recent theoretical proposals [40][41][42]. There is thus hope that 2D nodal superconductors could form the basis for various heterostructures with novel properties [26], possibly opening new routes towards Majorana zero-modes [43].…”