Majorana signatures in planar tunneling through a Kitaev spin liquid
Phys. Rev. B 114, 024410 – Published 7 July, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/bsfw-g5s6
Abstract
We propose a planar tunneling setup to probe vacancy-bound Majorana modes in the chiral Kitaev spin liquid. In this geometry, the inelastic tunneling conductance can be expressed directly in terms of real-space spin correlations, establishing a link between measurable spectra and the underlying fractionalized excitations. We show that spin vacancies host localized Majorana states that generate sharp near-zero-bias features, well separated from the continuum of bulk spin excitations. Compared to local STM measurements, the planar configuration naturally enhances the signal by coherently summing over multiple vacancies, reducing spatial resolution requirements. Our results demonstrate a realistic and scalable route to detect Majorana excitations in Kitaev materials.
