Signatures of Majorana Fermions in Hybrid Superconductor-Semiconductor Nanowire Devices

Majoranas Arrive

When a negatively charged electron meets a positron—its positively charged antiparticle—they annihilate each other in a flash of gamma rays. A Majorana fermion, on the other hand, is a neutral particle, which is its own antiparticle. No sightings of a Majorana have been reported in the elementary particle world, but recently they have been proposed to exist in solid-state systems and suggested to be of interest as a quantum computing platform. Mourik et al. (p. 1003 , published online 12 April; see the cover; see the Perspective by Brouwer ) set up a semiconductor nanowire contacted on each end by a normal and a superconducting electrode that revealed evidence of Majorana fermions.