Quantum Institute: Visitor Schedule

The Quantum Lunch is regularly held on Thursdays in the Theoretical Division Conference Room, TA-3, Building 123, Room 121.

The organizing committee includes Malcolm Boshier (P-21), Adolfo del Campo (T-4 & CNLS), Michael Di Rosa (C-PCS), Armin Rahmanisisan (T-4 & CNLS), Changhyun Ryu (P-21) , Nikolai Sinitsyn (T-4), Rolando Somma (T-4), Christopher Ticknor (T-1), and Wojciech Zurek (T-4).

For more information, or to nominate a speaker, contact Adolfo del Campo.

To add your name to the Quantum Lunch email list, contact Ellie Vigil.

Thursday September 26, 2013
12:30 PM - 2:00 PM

Speaker: Jay Deep Sau (University of Maryland, College Park)

Technical Host: Dibyendu Roy

TOPIC: The search for topologically degenerate Majorana modes in semiconductor/superconductor interfaces

Abstract
Majorana fermions are fermion-like excitations that were originally proposed in particle physics by Ettore Majorana and are characterized as being their own anti-particle. In condensed matter systems Majorana fermions occur as fractionalized excitations with topologically protected degeneracy associated with such excitations. In this talk, I will discuss a recent set of proposals for realizing Majorana modes in a large class of spin-orbit coupled, time-reversal symmetry broken superconducting systems. The simplicity of this class of systems has resulted in several experimental attempts, which have successfully observed preliminary evidence for the Majorana modes in the form of zero-bias conductance peaks and doubled Shapiro steps. Following this I will then discuss future possibilities in terms of modifications to the experiments to help confirm the presence of Majorana modes.