Effects of the electrostatic environment on the Majorana nanowire devices

Understand

One of the promising platforms for creating Majorana bound states is a hybrid nanostructure consisting of a semiconducting nanowire covered by a superconductor.

• We analyze the previously disregarded role of electrostatic interaction in these devices.
• Our main result is that Coulomb interaction causes the chemical potential to respond to an applied magnetic field, while spin-orbit interaction and screening by the superconducting lead suppress this response.
• Consequently, the electrostatic environment influences two properties of Majorana devices: the shape of the topological phase boundary and the oscillations of the Majorana splitting energy.