Phonon-assisted Andreev reflection at a Majorana zero mode

Ning Dai; Qing-Feng Sun

doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.99.085436

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Phonon-assisted Andreev reflection at a Majorana zero mode

Ning Dai, Qing-Feng Sun

DOI 10.1103/PhysRevB.99.085436 · Physical Review B

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Abstract

One of the typical features of a Majorana zero mode (MZM) at the end of a topological superconductor is a zero-bias peak in the tunneling spectroscopy of the normal-lead-superconductor junction. In this paper we study a model with one phonon mode coupling to the superconductor lead of the normal-lead-superconductor junction, which can be viewed as an electron-lead/phonon-coupled-MZM/hole-lead structure. The phonon-coupled MZM acts as a series of channels in which an electron can turn into a hole by absorbing and emitting phonons. These channels present in the local density of states (LDOS) as a series of stripes, generating the corresponding peaks in the tunneling spectroscopy. In LDOS, the electron-phonon interaction narrows and redistributes the weight among stripes. In the tunneling spectroscopy, the heights of peaks present a feature of the multiphonon process. With these investigations, our work illuminates the mechanism of phonon-assisted Andreev reflection at a Majorana zero mode.