Majorana fermions in a periodically driven semiconductor-superconductor Heterostructure

We propose a new approach to create Majorana fermions at the edge of a periodically driven semiconductor-superconductor Heterostructure. We calculate the quasi-energy spectrum of the periodically driven Heterostructure by using Floquet's theory. When the interaction between different Brillouin zones of quasi-energy is neglected, one Majorana fermion with zero quasi-energy can be created at each edge of the Heterostructure when the ratio of driven amplitude and driven frequency is larger than a minimum. Furthermore, Majorana fermions with nonzero quasi-energy emerge when the driven frequency is low and the interaction between different Brillouin zones of quasi-energy needs to be considered. We also discuss the experimental protocol of creating Majorana fermions in the periodically driven Heterostructure. Copyright (C) EPLA, 2013