TY - JOUR
T1 - Mitigating disorder-induced zero-energy states in weakly coupled superconductor-semiconductor hybrid systems
AU - Awoga, Oladunjoye A.
AU - Leijnse, Martin
AU - Black-Schaffer, Annica M.
AU - Cayao, Jorge
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 authors. Published by the American Physical Society.
PY - 2023/5/1
Y1 - 2023/5/1
N2 - Disorder has appeared as one of the main mechanisms to induce topologically trivial zero-energy states in superconductor-semiconductor systems, thereby challenging the detection of topological superconductivity and Majorana bound states. Here, we demonstrate that, for disorder in any part of the system, the formation of disorder-induced trivial zero-energy states can, to a large extent, be mitigated by keeping the coupling between the semiconductor and superconductor weak. The only exception is strong disorder in the semiconductor, where instead the strong-coupling regime is somewhat more robust against disorder. Furthermore, we find that the topological phase in this weak-coupling regime is robust against disorder, with a large and well-defined topological gap which is highly beneficial for topological protection. Our work shows the advantages and disadvantages of weak and strong couplings under disorder, important for designing superconductor-semiconductor hybrid structures.
AB - Disorder has appeared as one of the main mechanisms to induce topologically trivial zero-energy states in superconductor-semiconductor systems, thereby challenging the detection of topological superconductivity and Majorana bound states. Here, we demonstrate that, for disorder in any part of the system, the formation of disorder-induced trivial zero-energy states can, to a large extent, be mitigated by keeping the coupling between the semiconductor and superconductor weak. The only exception is strong disorder in the semiconductor, where instead the strong-coupling regime is somewhat more robust against disorder. Furthermore, we find that the topological phase in this weak-coupling regime is robust against disorder, with a large and well-defined topological gap which is highly beneficial for topological protection. Our work shows the advantages and disadvantages of weak and strong couplings under disorder, important for designing superconductor-semiconductor hybrid structures.
U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevB.107.184519
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevB.107.184519
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85161093113
SN - 2469-9950
VL - 107
JO - Physical Review B
JF - Physical Review B
IS - 18
M1 - 184519
ER -