Non-Hermitian skin effect and Majorana signature in a Kitaev chain with unidirectional hopping disorder
Phys. Rev. B 113, 075419 – Published 11 February, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/wxgq-vwk5
Abstract
We propose a one-dimensional non-Hermitian Kitaev chain with unidirectional hopping disorder. Through theoretical analysis and numerical calculations, we find that as disorder increases, this system exhibits rich transition phenomena, including skin effect transitions and transitions of Majorana zero modes. Specifically, with the increase of disorder, the skinning directions of electron and hole states in the positive and negative energy regions are swapped, accompanied by enhanced competition between localization and the skin effect. Meanwhile, during this process, the localization properties of Majorana zero modes can be modulated, resulting in diverse outcomes of local Andreev reflection. Our study thus reveals the critical role of unidirectional hopping disorder in regulating the physical properties of the one-dimensional Kitaev chain, offering new insights into the skin effect and Majorana signatures in non-Hermitian topological superconducting systems.
