Seminarium Instytutu Fizyki Teoretycznej Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego

Andreev and Majorana-type quasiparticles in nanoscopic systems

prof. dr hab. Tadeusz Domański

UMCS, Lublin

It is well known that the electronic states of isotropic superconductors are prohibited inside some characteristic energy window Delta ~ meV around the Fermi surface because of electron pairing. Similar property has been recently observed in various nanoscopic objects (e.g. molecules, nanowires, carbon nanotubes, self-assembled quantum dots) due to the proximity effect, where the penetrating Cooper pairs convert them into superconducting nanoislands.

The proximized nanoobjects often reveal formation of the additional in-gap (subgap) bound states. These Andreev-Yu-Shiba-Rusinov quasiparticles appear always in pairs because they represent coherent superpositions of the particle and hole states. Under specific conditions (due to spin-orbit coupling and external magnetic field) some of the in-gap states may evolve into the Majorana-type quasiparticles. In fact, the first experimental signature of the zero-energy Majorana feature has been reported by the Dutch group from Delft using InSb wire deposited on the s-wave NbTiN superconductor [V. Mourik et al, Science 336, 1003 (2012)].

I shall give a survey on the recent intensive studies of the Andreev/Majorana quasiparticles in nanoscopic systems. I will also discuss some closely related studies on the Cooper pair splitters, where the released/depaired electrons preserve their quantum entanglement over macroscopic scales.