Emerging Dirac and Majorana fermions for carbon nanotubes with proximity-induced pairing and spiral magnetic field

TY - JOUR

T1 - Emerging Dirac and Majorana fermions for carbon nanotubes with proximity-induced pairing and spiral magnetic field

AU - Egger, R.

AU - Flensberg, Karsten

PY - 2012/6/29

Y1 - 2012/6/29

N2 - We study the low-energy band structure of armchair and small-band-gap semiconducting carbon nanotubes with proximity-induced superconducting pairing when a spiral magnetic field creates strong effective spin-orbit interactions from the Zeeman term and a periodic potential from the orbital part. We find that gapless Dirac fermions can be generated by variation of a single parameter. For a small-band-gap semiconducting tube with the field in the same plane, a nondegenerate zero mode at momentum k=0 can be induced, allowing for the generation of topologically protected Majorana fermion end states.

AB - We study the low-energy band structure of armchair and small-band-gap semiconducting carbon nanotubes with proximity-induced superconducting pairing when a spiral magnetic field creates strong effective spin-orbit interactions from the Zeeman term and a periodic potential from the orbital part. We find that gapless Dirac fermions can be generated by variation of a single parameter. For a small-band-gap semiconducting tube with the field in the same plane, a nondegenerate zero mode at momentum k=0 can be induced, allowing for the generation of topologically protected Majorana fermion end states.

U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevB.85.235462

DO - 10.1103/PhysRevB.85.235462

M3 - Journal article

SN - 2469-9950

VL - 85

JO - Physical Review B

JF - Physical Review B

IS - 23

M1 - 235462

ER -