TY - JOUR
T1 - Quantized Spin Pumping in Topological Ferromagnetic-Superconducting Nanowires
AU - Becerra, V. Fernández
AU - Trif, Mircea
AU - Hyart, Timo
N1 - Funding Information:
The work is supported by the Foundation for Polish Science through the IRA Programme co-financed by EU within SG OP and the Academy of Finland Project No. 331094. We acknowledge the computational resources provided by the Aalto Science-IT project and the access to the computing facilities of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling (ICM), University of Warsaw, under Grant No. G89-1264.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 American Physical Society.
PY - 2023/6
Y1 - 2023/6
N2 - Semiconducting nanowires with strong spin-orbit coupling in the presence of induced superconductivity and ferromagnetism can support Majorana zero modes. We study the pumping due to the precession of the magnetization in single-subband nanowires and show that spin pumping is robustly quantized when the hybrid nanowire is in the topologically nontrivial phase, whereas charge pumping is not quantized. Moreover, there exists one-to-one correspondence between the quantized conductance, entropy change and spin pumping in long topologically nontrivial nanowires but these observables are uncorrelated in the case of accidental zero-energy Andreev bound states in the trivial phase. Thus, we conclude that observation of correlated and quantized peaks in the conductance, entropy change and spin pumping would provide strong evidence of Majorana zero modes, and we elaborate how topological Majorana zero modes can be distinguished from quasi-Majorana modes potentially created by a smooth tunnel barrier at the lead-nanowire interface. Finally, we discuss peculiar interference effects affecting the spin pumping in short nanowires at very low energies.
AB - Semiconducting nanowires with strong spin-orbit coupling in the presence of induced superconductivity and ferromagnetism can support Majorana zero modes. We study the pumping due to the precession of the magnetization in single-subband nanowires and show that spin pumping is robustly quantized when the hybrid nanowire is in the topologically nontrivial phase, whereas charge pumping is not quantized. Moreover, there exists one-to-one correspondence between the quantized conductance, entropy change and spin pumping in long topologically nontrivial nanowires but these observables are uncorrelated in the case of accidental zero-energy Andreev bound states in the trivial phase. Thus, we conclude that observation of correlated and quantized peaks in the conductance, entropy change and spin pumping would provide strong evidence of Majorana zero modes, and we elaborate how topological Majorana zero modes can be distinguished from quasi-Majorana modes potentially created by a smooth tunnel barrier at the lead-nanowire interface. Finally, we discuss peculiar interference effects affecting the spin pumping in short nanowires at very low energies.
U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.237002
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.237002
M3 - Article
C2 - 37354416
AN - SCOPUS:85162747435
SN - 0031-9007
VL - 130
JO - Physical Review Letters
JF - Physical Review Letters
IS - 23
M1 - 237002
ER -