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Updated: Aug 11, 2025

Scanning SQUID Study of Vortex Manipulation by Local Contact
Published on: February 1, 2017
Topological superconducting vortex from trivial electronic bands
Lun-Hui Hu1,2, Rui-Xing Zhang3,4,5
1Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, 37996, USA.
Abstract:
Superconducting vortices are promising traps to confine non-Abelian Majorana quasi-particles. It has been widely believed that bulk-state topology, of either normal-state or superconducting ground-state wavefunctions, is crucial for enabling Majorana zero modes in solid-state systems. This common belief has shaped two major search directions for Majorana modes, in either intrinsic topological superconductors or trivially superconducting topological materials. Here we show that Majorana-carrying superconducting vortex is not exclusive to bulk-state topology, but can arise from topologically trivial quantum materials as well. We predict that the trivial bands in superconducting HgTe-class materials are responsible for inducing anomalous vortex topological physics that goes beyond any existing theoretical paradigms. A feasible scheme of strain-controlled Majorana engineering and experimental signatures for vortex Majorana modes are also discussed. Our work provides new guidelines for vortex-based Majorana search in general superconductors.
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