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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Nonlocality of Majorana bound states revealed by electron waiting times in a topological Andreev interferometer

Paramita Dutta1, Jorge Cayao2, Annica M. Black-Schaffer2, and Pablo Burset3

  • 1Theoretical Physics Division, Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad 380009, India
  • 2Department of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala University, Box 516, S-751 20 Uppsala, Sweden
  • 3Department of Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics, Condensed Matter Physics Center (IFIMAC) and Instituto Nicolás Cabrera, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28049 Madrid, Spain

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Phys. Rev. Research 6, L012062 – Published 19 March, 2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.6.L012062

Abstract

The analysis of waiting times of electron transfers has recently become experimentally accessible owing to advances in noninvasive probes working in the short-time regime. We study electron waiting times in a topological Andreev interferometer: a superconducting loop with controllable phase difference connected to a quantum spin Hall edge, where the edge state helicity enables the transfer of electrons and holes into separate leads, with transmission controlled by the loop's phase difference ϕ. This setup features gapless Majorana bound states at ϕ=π. The waiting times for electron transfers across the junction are sensitive to the presence of the gapless states, but are uncorrelated for all ϕ. By contrast, at ϕ=π the waiting times of Andreev-scattered holes show a strong correlation and the crossed (hole-electron) distributions feature a unique behavior. Both effects exclusively result from the nonlocal properties of Majorana bound states. Consequently, electron waiting times and their correlations could circumvent some of the challenges for detecting topological superconductivity and Majorana states beyond conductance signatures.

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Phys. Rev. Research 6, L012062– Published 19 March, 2024
  • Received 4 July 2023
  • Revised 24 November 2023
  • Accepted 15 January 2024
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