Unconventional Josephson signatures of Majorana bound states

Understand

A junction between two topological superconductors containing a pair of Majorana fermions exhibits a `fractional' Josephson effect, $4\pi$ periodic in the superconductors' phase difference.

• An additional fractional Josephson effect, however, arises when the Majoranas are spatially separated by a superconducting barrier.
• This new term gives rise to a set of Shapiro steps which are essentially absent without Majorana modes and therefore provides a unique signature for these exotic states.