Researchers have made a groundbreaking discovery in the field of superconducting topological crystalline insulators, paving the way for the realization of fault-tolerant quantum computers.
elusive Majorana zero modes revealed
As quasiparticles, Majorana zero modes (MZMs) have a property called non-Abelian statistics, which has the potential to be game changer in quantum computing. MZMs, unlike conventional particles such as electrons or photons, can be braided in any order with the final state remaining unchanged. This feature makes them a promising platform for fault-tolerant quantum computation.
Until now the biggest roadblock in creating MZMs has been their separation into real space, making the motions necessary for hybridization occur. However, a team of researchers from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) who worked with collaborators at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), have come up with a novel solution to this challenge.
Harnessing Crystal Symmetry for Control Precisions
Now, the research team has detected what it believes are also the world’s first multiple MZMs within a single vortex of the superconducting topological crystalline insulator SnTe. The crystal symmetry of the material in which they were placed allowed them to control the coupling between the MZMs without needing real-space movement or strong magnetic fields.
Exploring the associated phenomenon, the zero-bias peak—a smoking gun signal of MZMs in SnTe/Pb—exhibits pronounced evolution with tilted magnetic fields at a horizontal reference plane for the SJTU experimental group. To validate that the measured anisotropic responses did indeed originate from the crystal-symmetry-protected MZMs, the theoretical team at HKUST performed extensive numerical simulations.
The scheme proposed here opens a new way to tackle the issues in real space manipulation of MZMs by exploiting the advantages of crystal symmetry. These results lay the foundation for measurements of non-Abelian statistics and hold promise for novel topological qubits and quantum gates realized with crystal-symmetry-protected multiple MZMs.
Conclusion
The detection of seven Majorana zero modes in one vortex in a topological superconducting state arising on the (111) surface of the crystalline weak TI SnTe is a key advance towards fault-tolerant quantum computation. For the first time, a research team from Oxford University has harnessed the unique properties of single crystal perovskite to trap and manipulate these volatile quasiparticles; providing new opportunities for refined control over their behavior through design of materials using symmetry techniques associated with crystals. This work is a starting point for the exploration of linking knot theory with the extremely fast and robust topological quantum memories promising practical realisation of the quantum computer.
