Electrostatic effects and topological superconductivity in semiconductor-superconductor-magnetic-insulator hybrid wires

We investigate the impact of electrostatics on the proximity effect between a magnetic insulator and a semiconductor wire in semiconductor-superconductor-magnetic-insulator hybrid structures. By performing self-consistent Schrodinger-Poisson calculations using an effective model of the hybrid system, we find that large effective Zeeman fields consistent with the emergence of topological superconductivity emerge within a large parameter window in wires with overlapping layers of magnetic insulator and superconductor, but not in nonoverlapping structures. We show that this behavior is essentially the result of electrostatic effects controlling the amplitude of the low-energy wave functions near the semiconductor-magnetic-insulator interface.

Automated summary

By performing self-consistent Schrodinger-Poisson calculations, it was found that electrostatic effects can impact the emergence of topological superconductivity in semiconductor-superconductor-magnetic-insulator hybrid structures. This is mainly achieved by controlling the amplitude of low-energy wave functions near the semiconductor-magnetic-insulator interface.