Regensburg 2013 – scientific programme
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HL: Fachverband Halbleiterphysik
HL 98: Topological insulators (TT, jointly with DS, HL, MA, O)
HL 98.14: Talk
Friday, March 15, 2013, 13:00–13:15, H18
Effective spinful Kitaev model and Majorana fermion mediated magnetoelectric phenomena — •Panagiotis Kotetes1, Alexander Shnirman2, and Gerd Schön1 — 1Institut für Theoretische Festkörperphysik, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 76128 Karlsruhe — 2Institut für Theorie der Kondensierten Materie, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 76128 Germany
Current trends in the field of quantum information relate to topological quantum computing based on Majorana fermions. In fact, recent experiments involving a Rashba spin-orbit coupled semiconducting wire in proximity to a conventional superconductor which is under the simultaneous influence of a Zeeman field, have provided striking results that could be associated with the presence of Majorana fermions. In the infinite magnetic field limit, the above system is equivalent to a spinless p-wave superconductor and can be effectively described by Kitaev's celebrated lattice model. This model owes the distinctive property of yielding Majorana fermions which are localized at the edges. So far, a vast number of previous studies were based on this mapping to Kitaev's model, neglecting in this manner the possibility of actively manipulating the spin degree of freedom. To remedy this problem, we construct an effective spinful Kitaev model that can be used for finite magnetic fields. This model opens new perspectives for spin-based quantum computing applications and provides a more general description of Majorana-fermion-mediated magnetoelectric Josephson effects, beyond 1D geometries [1].\\[1mm] [1] P. Kotetes, A. Shnirman and G. Schön, arXiv:1207.2691.