Excess photon-assisted noise of Majorana and Andreev bound states
Abstract
Photon-assisted tunneling arises under an ac bias, with the drive frequency setting the photon energy. The excess photon-assisted noise is defined as the difference between the shot noise under a combined dc and ac bias and that under a dc bias alone. We investigate this quantity in tunneling into Majorana or Andreev bound states, which are of great interest in the search for topological superconductors. Under a harmonic bias $V(t)=V_\mathrm{dc}[1-\cos(Ωt)]$, the excess photon-assisted noise exhibits distinct behaviors: for Majorana or quasi-Majorana bound states, it undergoes multiple sign reversals as $V_\mathrm{dc}$ increases and vanishes at nonzero integer values of $eV_\mathrm{dc}/Ω$ (with $e$ the elementary charge), whereas for zero-energy Andreev bound states--particularly those producing nearly quantized zero-bias conductance peaks--it remains strictly negative over the entire $V_\mathrm{dc}$ range.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Topological Materials and Phenomena
Quantum and electron transport phenomena
Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Physical review. B./Physical review. B
- Volume
- 113
- Issue
- 7
- Publication date
- 15 January 2026
- Language
- EN