Splitting of a Cooper pair by a pair of Majorana bound states

We propose a method to probe the nonlocality of a pair of Majorana bound states by crossed Andreev reflection, which is the injection of an electron into one bound state followed by the emission of a hole by the other (equivalent to the splitting of a Cooper pair). We find that, at sufficiently low...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPhysical review letters Vol. 101; no. 12; p. 120403
Main Authors Nilsson, Johan, Akhmerov, A R, Beenakker, C W J
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 19.09.2008
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Summary:We propose a method to probe the nonlocality of a pair of Majorana bound states by crossed Andreev reflection, which is the injection of an electron into one bound state followed by the emission of a hole by the other (equivalent to the splitting of a Cooper pair). We find that, at sufficiently low excitation energies, this nonlocal scattering process dominates over local Andreev reflection involving a single bound state. As a consequence, the low-temperature and low-frequency fluctuations deltaI(i) of currents into the two bound states i=1, 2 are maximally correlated: deltaI_1deltaI_2[over ]=deltaI_i(2).[over ].
ISSN:0031-9007
DOI:10.1103/physrevlett.101.120403