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Updated: Sep 13, 2026

Resonance Raman Spectroscopy of Extreme Nanowires and Other 1D Systems
Published on: April 28, 2016
Absence of Quasi-Majorana False Positives in Full-Shell Hybrid Nanowires
Carlos Payá1, César Robles1, Pablo San-Jose1
1Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid (ICMM), CSIC, 28049 Madrid, Spain.
Abstract:
Tunneling spectroscopy cannot be used as an unambiguous detection tool for Majorana zero modes (MZMs) in conventional partial-shell nanowires. The presence of smooth confinement at the end of the hybrid wire (among other sources of disorder) can create exponentially pinned zero-energy states, called quasi-MZMs, that mimic all local signatures of MZMs but lack topological protection. We find that this ambiguity in MZM detection does not occur in full-shell hybrid nanowires, an alternative nanowire design where a superconducting shell fully surrounds the semiconductor core. Acting as a synthetic vortex, a full-shell hybrid nanowire hosts Caroli-de Gennes-Matricon state analogs. In the presence of smooth confinement, these states create a topologically trivial skin at the wire's end that prevents the local probe from detecting quasi-MZMs. In this way, the same mechanism that creates MZM impostors makes them invisible in tunneling spectroscopy, avoiding false positives produced by smooth disorder.
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