All-optical scheme for detecting the possible Majorana signature based on QD and nanomechanical resonator systems

Abstract

Majorana fermions (MFs) are exotic particles that are their own anti-particles. Currently, the search for MFs occurring as quasiparticle excitations in condensed matter systems has attracted widespread interest, because of their importance in fundamental physics and potential applications in topological quantum computation based on solid-state devices. Motivated by recent experimental progress towards the detection and manipulation of MFs in hybrid semiconductor/superconductor heterostructures, in this review, we present a novel proposal to probe MFs in all-optical domain. We introduce a single quantum dot (QD), a hybrid quantum dot-nanomechanical resonators (QD-NR) system, and a carbon nanotube (CNT) resonator implanted in a single electron spin system with optical pump-probe technology to detect MFs, respectively. With this scheme, a possible Majorana signature is investigated via the probe absorption spectrum and nonlinear optical Kerr effect, and the coupling strength between MFs and the QD or the single electron spin is also determined. In the hybrid QD-NR system, vibration of the NR will enhance the nonlinear optical effect, which makes the MFs more sensitive for detection. In the CNT resonator with a single electron, the single electron spin can be considered as a sensitive probe, and the CNT resonator behaved as a phonon cavity is robust for detecting of MFs. This optical scheme will provide another method for the detection MFs and will open the door for new applications ranging from robust manipulation of MFs to quantum information processing based on MFs.Majorana fermions, QD, nanomechanical resonator, carbon nanotube resonator, optical pump-probe technology PACS number(s): 78.67.Hc, 42.50.Gy, 63.22.+m, 78.47.+p Citation:Chen H J, Zhu K D. All-optical scheme for detecting the possible Majorana signature based on QD and nanomechanical resonator systems. Sci China-Phys Mech Astron, 2015, 58: 050301,

Thermoelectric Effect in a Correlated Quantum Dot Side-Coupled to Majorana Bound States

“…Recently, optical schemes based on QD structure were also theoretically proposed to detect the MBSs with the help of optical pump-probe technique. [21,22] In ring-or T-shaped QDbased systems, the quantum interference phenomena are drastically affected by the MBSs [23][24][25] and then can be used for the detection scheme with the help of, for example, the Fano effect [26][27][28].…”

“…1) to study the properties of the thermopower. In the nanosystem we considered, the strong Coulomb interaction in the dot, which has been neglected in previous works [18,[22][23][24][34][35][36][37][38][39], is taken into account. Furthermore, we consider that only one spin component of the QD spin is coupled to the MBSs due to the chiral nature of the MBSs [40].…”

Photon-Assisted Transport Through a Quantum Dot Side-Coupled to Majorana Bound States

“…A vast of experimental works have been devoted to the detection of MBSs, relying on the signatures probably induced by the MBSs, including the 4π periodic Josephson current-phase in junctions between topological superconductors [13], half-integer conductance plateau at the coercive field in a hybrid structure composing of topological superconductors and topological quantum anomalous Hall insulator [6], tunneling spectroscopy using the Rashba nanowires coupled to the bulk s-wave superconductors [10], zero-bias of the differential conductance at the edges of the wires [14,15], the non-locality [16][17][18][19] and Kondo effect [20] influenced by MBSs. Since the above signatures can also be brought about by other mechanisms, some alternative schemes then have been continually put forward, such as the optical detection ones [21][22][23]. In [21], the authors found that the MBSs will absorb(emit) photons and result in photon-assisted tunneling side band peaks.…”

The Majorana neutrino mass matrix indicated by the current data

“…We choose the flavor basis, that is, the charged lepton mass eigenstates coincide with the flavor eigenstates, then the information about mixing is contained solely in the Majorana mass matrix, together with the neutrino mass information, which is relevant to the constituents of the universe [13,14]. Whether neutrinos are Majorana or Dirac particles is also inspiring for searching some phenomenological symmetries in condensed matter and optical physics [15]. From a theoretical viewpoint, a Majorana neutrino mass matrix stemming from a dimensional-5 Weinberg operator [16], that is, a i j Λ l i hl j h where l denotes a lepton doublet and h denotes the Higgs doublet, can give us a natural explanation of the smallness of the neutrino mass [17], as explored by various seesaw models [18][19][20][21][22][23] where the lightness of neutrino masses is naturally accounted for after integrating the heavy messenger fields.…”