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Ettingshausen effect due to Majorana modes

  • University of California at Riverside
  • California Institute of Technology
  • University of California at Santa Barbara

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

17 Scopus citations

Abstract

The presence of Majorana zero-energy modes at vortex cores in a topological superconductor implies that each vortex carries an extra entropy s 0, given by (k B/2)ln 2, that is independent of temperature. By utilizing this special property of Majorana modes, the edges of a topological superconductor can be cooled (or heated) by the motion of the vortices across the edges. As vortices flow in the transverse direction with respect to an external imposed supercurrent, due to the Lorentz force, a thermoelectric effect analogous to the Ettingshausen effect is expected to occur between opposing edges. We propose an experiment to observe this thermoelectric effect, which could directly probe the intrinsic entropy of Majorana zero-energy modes.

Original languageEnglish
Article number105005
JournalNew Journal of Physics
Volume14
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2012

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