Heavy metals, such as Au, Ag, and Pb, often have sharp surface states that
are split by strong Rashba spin-orbit coupling. The strong spin-orbit coupling
and two-dimensional nature of these surface states make them ideal platforms
for realizing topological superconductivity and Majorana fermions. In this
paper, we further develop a proposal to realize Majorana fermions at the ends
of quasi-one-dimensional metallic wires. We show how superconductivity can be
induced on the metallic surface states by a combination of proximity effect,
disorder, and interactions. Applying a magnetic field along the wire can drive
the wire into a topologically non-trivial state with Majorana end-states.
Unlike the case of a perpendicular field, where the chemical potential must be
fined tuned near the Rashba-band crossing, the parallel field allows one to
realize Majoranas for arbitrarily large chemical potential. We then show that,
despite the presence of a large carrier density from the bulk metal, it is
still possible to effectively control the chemical potential of the surface
states by gating. The simplest version of our proposal, which involves only an
Au(111) film deposited on a conventional superconductor, should be readily
realizable.Comment: 9 Pages, 6 Figure
