Topological Dirac matter and Majorana fermions in condensed matter physics

par Pascal Simon (LPMMC Orsay)

lundi 4 févr. 2013, 14:30 → 15:30 Europe/Paris

ICS

Seminaire du Consortium de Physique Theorique de Strasbourg (CPTS)

In the past years, condensed matter physics has experienced a tremendous activity in the field of Dirac matter with the discovery of graphene and new topological insulators. These insulators contrary to standard insulators have a band gap but edge states which are topologically protected and described by the massless Dirac equation. Similar concepts occur for topological superconductors: there are characterized by a superconducting gap and topologically protected mid-gap edge states. These edge states are fermionic excitations which are exact superpositions of particles and holes: they are therefore Majorana quasi-particles.

Some preliminary experimental signatures of such exotic state of matter have been observed very recently. In this seminar I will try to review the recent advances in this rapidly growing field with a particular emphasis on experimental signatures of Majorana fermions.
http://www-ics.u-strasbg.fr/~etsp/seminar/theostras.php