Leakage of Majorana bound states in an inhomogeneous topological nanowire

Abstract

We present an exact solution of the continuum Bogolyubov-de-Gennes Hamiltonian for Majorana bound states (MBSs) generated in a superconductor–semiconductor hybrid topological nanowire. The full energy spectra that include the band states and in-gap states could be obtained. We show that for relatively short wire length, the zero energy mode could be induced even in the topological trivial regime, which also indicates oscillatory dependence on the chemical potential. With the increase of the Zeeman field, the MBSs are almost fully spin-polarized and do not localize at the wire ends gradually. We also extend our discussion to the property of Majorana modes in an inhomogeneous nanowire, in which a local gate voltage is applied to one end of the nanowire. It is found that the local potential barrier or well could modulate the Majorana energy splitting periodically. The leakage of MBSs to the potential region is exponentially suppressed for the barrier case. A potential well could induce near-zero-energy bound states and these states merge with MBSs, leading to the delocalization of MBSs. In the potential well region, both the spin-up and spin-down components of the trivial states account for a significant proportion, which can be detected experimentally.