Speaker: Falko Pientka (Max Planck, Dresden)

Title: Topological superconductivity in conventional Josephson junctions

Time: Thursday 2 May 2019, 11.00 am

Abstract: Experimental studies of superconductors in low-dimensions and with interesting spin structure have become possible by engineering mesoscopic superconductor hybrid devices. Of particular interest are topological superconductors in one dimension because they host Majorana excitations featuring nonabelian exchange statistics. In recent years, considerable effort has been dedicated to experimentally realizing Majorana states in semiconductor nanowires and related devices.
In this talk I will introduce a novel platform for one-dimensional topological superconductors based on conventional Josephson junctions in two dimensions, where a phase bias can induce a topological phase hosting Majorana states. I will outline the differences to nanowire platforms and discuss first experimental results.
Time permitting, I will furthermore briefly present our ideas for a Majorana-based quantum simulator of strongly correlated spin systems.