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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Observation of Majorana-like bound states in metamaterial-based Kitaev chain analogs

Kai Qian1,*, David J. Apigo1,†, Karmela Padavić2,‡, Keun Hyuk Ahn1,§, Smitha Vishveshwara2,∥, and Camelia Prodan1,¶

  • 1Department of Physics, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, New Jersey 07102, USA
  • 2Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA

  • *Present address: Department of Mechanical Aerospace and Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, USA; k3qian@eng.ucsd.edu
  • †dapigo@gmail.com
  • ‡Present address: Department of Science, Bard High School Early College, New York, New York 10002, USA; kpadavi2@illinois.edu
  • § kenahn@njit.edu
  • ∥smivish@illinois.edu
  • cprodan@njit.edu
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Phys. Rev. Research 5, L012012 – Published 30 January, 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.5.L012012

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate that Majorana-like bound states (MLBSs) can occur in quasi-one-dimensional metamaterials, analogous to Majorana zero modes (MZMs) in the Kitaev chain in terms of mode spectrum and mode wave functions. In a mechanical spinner ladder system, we observe a topological phase transition and spectral-gap-protected edge MLBSs. We characterize phase controllable hybridization and the decaying and oscillatory nature of these MLBS pairs. It is shown that the hybridization can be tuned to yield the analog of parity switching in MZMs. We find strong agreements with theory.

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Phys. Rev. Research 5, L012012– Published 30 January, 2023
  • Received 28 January 2022
  • Accepted 11 October 2022
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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