Majorana fermions in a superconducting Mobius strip

Recently, much attention has been paid to search for Majorana fermions in solid-state systems. Among various proposals there is one based on radio-frequency superconducting quantum interference devices (rf-SQUIDs), in which the appearance of 4$π$-period energy-phase relations is regarded as smoking-gun evidence of Majorana fermion states. Here we report the observation of truncated 4$π$-period (i.e., 2$π$-period but fully skewed) oscillatory patterns of contact resistance on rf-SQUIDs constructed on the surface of three-dimensional topological insulator Bi$_2$Te$_3$. The results reveal the existence of 1/2 fractional modes of Cooper pairs and the occurrence of parity switchings, both of which are necessary signatures accompanied with the formation of Majorana fermion states.

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