Corner states, hinge states, and Majorana modes in SnTe nanowires

  • Nguyen Minh Nguyen
  • , Wojciech Brzezicki
  • , Timo Hyart

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

15 Citations (Scopus)
190 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

SnTe materials are one of the most flexible material platforms for exploring the interplay of topology and different types of symmetry breaking. We study symmetry-protected topological states in SnTe nanowires in the presence of various combinations of Zeeman field, s-wave superconductivity and inversion-symmetry-breaking field. We uncover the origin of robust corner states and hinge states in the normal state. In the presence of superconductivity, we find inversion-symmetry-protected gapless bulk Majorana modes, which give rise to quantized thermal conductance in ballistic wires. By introducing an inversion-symmetry-breaking field, the bulk Majorana modes become gapped and topologically protected localized Majorana zero modes appear at the ends of the wire.

Original languageEnglish
Article number075310
Pages (from-to)1-17
Number of pages17
JournalPhysical Review B
Volume105
Issue number7
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 23 Feb 2022
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

Funding

The work is supported by the Foundation for Polish Science through the IRA Programme cofinanced by EU within SG OP. W.B. also acknowledges support by Narodowe Centrum Nauki (NCN, National Science Centre, Poland) Project No. 2019/34/E/ST3/00404.

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