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Researchers at QuTech have found a way to make Majorana particles in a two-dimensional plane. This was achieved by creating devices that exploit the combined material properties of superconductors and semiconductors. The inherent flexibility of this new 2D platform should allow one to perform experiments with Majoranas that were previously inaccessible. The results are published in Nature.
Artificial Kitaev chains can be used to engineer Majorana bound states (MBSs) in superconductor–semiconductor hybrids. The researchers realized a two-site Kitaev chain in a two-dimensional electron gas by coupling two quantum dots through a region proximitized by a superconductor.
They demonstrated systematic control over inter-dot couplings through in-plane rotations of the magnetic field and via electrostatic gating of the proximitized region. This allows them to tune the system to sweet spots in parameter space, where robust correlated zero-bias conductance peaks are observed in tunnelling spectroscopy.
To study the extent of hybridization between localized MBSs, they have probed the evolution of the energy spectrum with magnetic field and estimated the Majorana polarization, an important metric for Majorana-based qubits.
The implementation of a Kitaev chain on a scalable and flexible two-dimensional platform provides a realistic path towards more advanced experiments that require manipulation and readout of multiple MBSs.
Read the Nature article here.
