Coherent manipulation of a Majorana qubit by a mechanical resonator

P. Zhang, Franco Nori

Published 2015-06-19Version 1

We propose a hybrid system composed of a Majorana qubit and a mechanical resonator, implemented by a semiconductor nanowire in proximity to an s-wave superconductor. In this proposal, three ferromagnetic gates are placed on top of and along the nanowire; the two outer gates are static and the inner one is free to oscillate harmonically as a mechanical resonator. These ferromagnetic gates induce a local Zeeman splitting and give rise to four Majorana bound states, constituting a Majorana qubit in the nanowire. The dynamical hybridization of the Majorana bound states, arising from the motion of the oscillating gate, results in a coherent coupling between the Majorana qubit and the mechanical resonator. By tuning the electric voltage on the ferromagnetic gates to modulate the local Rashba spin-orbit coupling, it is possible to reach the resonance of the two quantum systems for relatively strong couplings.