Conductance of a proximitized nanowire in the Coulomb blockade regime

B. van Heck, R. M. Lutchyn, L. I. Glazman

Published 2016-03-27Version 1

We identify the leading processes of electron transport across finite-length segments of proximitized nanowires and build a quantitative theory of their two-terminal conductance. In the presence of spin-orbit interaction, a nanowire can be tuned across the topological transition point by an applied magnetic field. Due to a finite segment length, electron transport is controlled by the Coulomb blockade. Upon increasing of the field, the shape and magnitude of the Coulomb blockade peaks in the linear conductance is defined, respectively, by Andreev reflection, single-electron tunneling, and resonant tunneling through the Majorana modes emerging after the topological transition. Our theory provides the framework for the analysis of experiments with proximitized nanowires, such as reported in Albrecht et al., Nature 531, 206-209 (2016), and identifies the signatures of the topological transition in the two-terminal conductance.