Dimerization-induced topological superconductivity in a Rashba nanowire

Abstract

We analyze influence of a dimerization on the topological phases of the Rashba nanowire proximitized to a superconducting substrate. We find that periodic alternations of the hopping integral and spin-orbit coupling can lead to band inversion, inducing transition to topologically nontrivial superconducting phase that hosts the Majorana zero-energy modes. This "dimerization-induced topological superconductivity" completely repels the topological phase of the uniform nanowire, whenever they happen to overlap. We provide an analytical justification for this puzzling behavior based on the symmetry/parity considerations and discuss feasible spectroscopic methods for its empirical observation. We also test stability of the topological superconducting phases against electrostatic disorder.