title: Observability of surface Andreev bound states in a topological insulator in proximity to an s-wave superconductor.
abstract: To guide experimental work on the search for Majorana zero-energy modes, we calculate the superconducting pairing symmetry of a three-dimensional topological insulator in combination with an s-wave superconductor. We show how the pairing symmetry changes across different topological regimes. We demonstrate that a dominant p-wave pairing relation is not sufficient to realise a Majorana zero-energy mode useful for quantum computation. Our main result is the relation between odd-frequency pairing and Majorana zero energy modes by using Green functions techniques in three-dimensional topological insulators in the so-called Majorana regime. We discuss thereafter how the pairing relations in the different regimes can be observed in the tunneling conductance of an s-wave proximised three-dimensional topological insulator. We discuss the necessity to incorporate a ferromagnetic insulator to localise the zero-energy bound state to the interface as a Majorana mode.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Science and Technology and MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Twente, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Snelder
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Golubov
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Asano
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Brinkman