TY - JOUR
T1 - Topological superfluids with finite-momentum pairing and Majorana fermions
AU - Qu, Chunlei
AU - Zheng, Zhen
AU - Gong, Ming
AU - Xu, Yong
AU - Mao, Li
AU - Zou, Xubo
AU - Guo, Guangcan
AU - Zhang, Chuanwei
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2013 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.
PY - 2013/10/28
Y1 - 2013/10/28
N2 - Majorana fermions (MFs), quantum particles that are their own antiparticles, are not only of fundamental importance in elementary particle physics and dark matter, but also building blocks for fault-tolerant quantum computation. Recently MFs have been intensively studied in solid state and cold atomic systems. These studies are generally based on superconducting pairing with zero total momentum. On the other hand, finite total momentum Cooper pairings, known as Fulde-Ferrell (FF) Larkin-Ovchinnikov (LO) states, were widely studied in many branches of physics. However, whether FF and LO superconductors can support MFs has not been explored. Here we show that MFs can exist in certain types of gapped FF states, yielding a new quantum matter: topological FF superfluids/superconductors. We demonstrate the existence of such topological FF superfluids and the associated MFs using spin-orbit-coupled degenerate Fermi gases and derive their parameter regions. The implementation of topological FF superconductors in semiconductor/superconductor heterostructures is also discussed.
AB - Majorana fermions (MFs), quantum particles that are their own antiparticles, are not only of fundamental importance in elementary particle physics and dark matter, but also building blocks for fault-tolerant quantum computation. Recently MFs have been intensively studied in solid state and cold atomic systems. These studies are generally based on superconducting pairing with zero total momentum. On the other hand, finite total momentum Cooper pairings, known as Fulde-Ferrell (FF) Larkin-Ovchinnikov (LO) states, were widely studied in many branches of physics. However, whether FF and LO superconductors can support MFs has not been explored. Here we show that MFs can exist in certain types of gapped FF states, yielding a new quantum matter: topological FF superfluids/superconductors. We demonstrate the existence of such topological FF superfluids and the associated MFs using spin-orbit-coupled degenerate Fermi gases and derive their parameter regions. The implementation of topological FF superconductors in semiconductor/superconductor heterostructures is also discussed.
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U2 - 10.1038/ncomms3710
DO - 10.1038/ncomms3710
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84889766599
VL - 4
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
M1 - 2710
ER -