Nearly quantized conductance plateau of vortex zero mode in an iron-based superconductor

Abstract

Majorana zero modes (MZMs) are spatially localized, zero-energy fractional quasiparticles with non-Abelian braiding statistics that hold promise for topological quantum computing. Owing to the particle-antiparticle equivalence, MZMs exhibit quantized conductance at low temperature. By using variable-tunnel-coupled scanning tunneling spectroscopy, we studied tunneling conductance of vortex bound states on FeTe_0.55Se_0.45 superconductors. We report observations of conductance plateaus as a function of tunnel coupling for zero-energy vortex bound states with values close to or even reaching the 2<i>e</i> ²/<i>h</i> quantum conductance (where <i>e</i> is the electron charge and <i>h</i> is Planck's constant). By contrast, no plateaus were observed on either finite energy vortex bound states or in the continuum of electronic states outside the superconducting gap. This behavior of the zero-mode conductance supports the existence of MZMs in FeTe_0.55Se_0.45.