Objective
The advent of topological materials has shaken the field of quantum physics, bringing with it the prospect of non-local states that exhibit non-abelian exchange statistics. A promising candidate for a topological state is a Majorana bound state (MBS), whose non-local nature makes it impervious to local noise, and whose state can be manipulated by changing the topology of multiple MBSs. This topological protection brings with it potential game-changing quantum computing applications. The last decade has been marked by significant advances in the field which have resulted in many observations through DC transport that are consistent with the presence of MBS. However, the DC transport characteristics of MBSs are very similar to trivial Andreev bound states, and consequently clear evidence of MBSs has thus far not been observed. The FUSIORANA project aims to unambiguously demonstrate the existence of MBSs by probing their coherent properties. Moving past DC transport, time-domain techniques will be employed to observe the lifetime of MBSs, their behavior when fused together, and finally to control their quantum state and measure their coherence. The findings of this project will reignite the field of topological quantum physics, spurring a next generation of experiments exploring coherent properties of non-local MBSs. It will also place MBSs as a prime candidate for a future quantum computer. The combination of expertise and infrastructure make the University of Copenhagen an ideal host institution for the proposed research project. The project will be supervised by C. Marcus and co-supervised by F. Kuemmeth; their combined knowledge on DC transport, Majorana physics, and time-domain control and readout perfectly match the topics of this project. The project also builds upon the existing MBS experiments in the group of C. Marcus, which have thus far been responsible for many of the key developments in the field of MBSs.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
MSCA-PF - MSCA-PFCoordinator
1165 Kobenhavn
Denmark