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SUMMARY:Spotting the elusive Majorana under the microscope - Prof. Ali Yaz
 dani\, Princeton University
DTSTART:20181004T143000Z
DTEND:20181004T153000Z
UID:TALK111961@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dr Ulrich Schneider
DESCRIPTION:Ettore Majorana famously considered that there may be fermions
  in nature that are their own antiparticle — and then he mysteriously di
 sappeared just after proposing the idea in 1938. In recent years\, followi
 ng pioneering theoretical work of Kitaev and others\, we have learned how 
 to engineer materials that harbor quasiparticles that behave similar to fe
 rmions Majorana had envisioned. In particular\, there has been a focus on 
 one-dimensional topological superconductor that harbor Majorana zero modes
  (MZM) that can potentially be used to make fault-tolerant topological qua
 ntum computation possible.\n\nRecently\, we have proposed and implemented 
 a platform for realization of topological superconductivity and MZM in cha
 ins of magnetic atoms on the surface of a superconductor [1\,2]. In this t
 alk\, I will describe this platform and the series of experiments we have 
 performed to establish the presence of these exotic quasi-particle using s
 pectroscopic mapping with the scanning tunneling microscope (STM). [2-4] T
 hese include study of the unique spin signature of MZM.[4] Finally\, if th
 ere is time I will discuss our most recent work on realization of MZM in a
  platform based on chiral quantum spin Hall edge states. Overall these exp
 eriments\, illustrate how the power of spectroscopic imaging with the STM 
 can be used to visualize novel quantum states of matter and their exotic q
 uasi-particles.\n\n[1] S. Nadj-Perge et al. PRB 88\, 020407 (2013).\n[2] S
 . Nadj-Perge et al. Science 346\, 6209 (2014).\n[3] B. E. Feldman et al. N
 ature Physics 13\, 286 (2016).\n[4] S. Jeon et al. Science 358\, 772 (2017
 ).
LOCATION:Small Lecture Theatre\, Bragg Building\, Cavendish Laboratory (Ph
 ysics Department)
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