Laboratoire de Physique Théorique
Toulouse - UMR 5152

A spatially oscillating pair potential drives a deconfinement transition of the Majorana bound states in the vortex cores of a Fu-Kane heterostructure (a 3D topological insulator on a superconducting substrate in a perpendicular magnetic field). In the deconfined phase at zero chemical potential the Majorana fermions form a dispersionless Landau level, protected by chiral symmetry against broadening due to vortex scattering. The Majorana Landau level also has a signature that distinguishes it from a regular Landau level : the coherent superposition of electrons and holes in the Majorana Landau causes a local density of states oscillation with a wave vector set by the Cooper pair momentum as well as the inverse coherence length. This striped density of states pattern also provides a means to measure the chirality of the Majorana fermions.