{
  "id": "0806.4889",
  "version": "v2",
  "published": "2008-06-30T13:34:15.000Z",
  "updated": "2008-08-15T11:52:59.000Z",
  "title": "Splitting of a Cooper pair by a pair of Majorana bound states",
  "authors": [
    "Johan Nilsson",
    "A. R. Akhmerov",
    "C. W. J. Beenakker"
  ],
  "comment": "4 pages, 2 figures; added two paragraphs and references in response to referee comments",
  "journal": "Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 120403 (2008)",
  "doi": "10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.120403",
  "categories": [
    "cond-mat.mes-hall"
  ],
  "abstract": "Majorana bound states are spatially localized superpositions of electron and hole excitations in the middle of a superconducting energy gap. A single qubit can be encoded nonlocally in a pair of spatially separated Majorana bound states. Such Majorana qubits are in demand as building blocks of a topological quantum computer, but direct experimental tests of the nonlocality remain elusive. Here we propose a method to probe the nonlocality by means of crossed Andreev reflection, which is the injection of an electron into one bound state followed by the emission of a hole by the other bound state (equivalent to the splitting of a Cooper pair over the two states). We have found that, at sufficiently low excitation energies, this nonlocal scattering process dominates over local Andreev reflection involving a single bound state. As a consequence, the low-temperature and low-frequency fluctuations $\\delta I_{i}$ of currents into the two bound states $i=1,2$ are maximally correlated: $\\overline{\\delta I_{1}\\delta I_{2}}=\\overline{\\delta I_{i}^{2}}$.",
  "revisions": [
    {
      "version": "v2",
      "updated": "2008-08-15T11:52:59.000Z"
    }
  ],
  "analyses": {
    "subjects": [
      "03.75.Lm",
      "73.21.-b",
      "74.45.+c",
      "74.78.Na"
    ],
    "keywords": [
      "cooper pair",
      "local andreev reflection",
      "nonlocal scattering process dominates",
      "sufficiently low excitation energies",
      "direct experimental tests"
    ],
    "tags": [
      "journal article"
    ],
    "publication": {
      "publisher": "APS",
      "journal": "Physical Review Letters",
      "year": 2008,
      "month": "Sep",
      "volume": 101,
      "number": 12,
      "pages": 120403
    },
    "note": {
      "typesetting": "TeX",
      "pages": 4,
      "language": "en",
      "license": "arXiv",
      "status": "editable",
      "adsabs": "2008PhRvL.101l0403N"
    }
  }
}