Among the major avenues that are being pursued for realizing quantum bits, the Majorana-based approach has been the most recent to be launched. It attempts to realize qubits that store quantum information in a topologically protected manner. The quantum information is protected by non-local storage in localized and well-separated Majorana zero modes, and manipulated by exploiting their non-abelian quantum statistics. Realizing these topological qubits is experimentally challenging, requiring superconductivity, helical electrons (created by spin–orbit coupling) and breaking of time-reversal symmetry to all cooperate in an uncomfortable alliance. Over the past decade, several candidate materials systems for realizing Majorana-based topological qubits have been explored, and there is accumulating, though still debated, evidence that zero modes are indeed being realized. This Review surveys the basic physical principles on which these approaches are based, the materials systems that are being developed and the current state of the field. We highlight both the progress that has been made and the challenges that still need to be overcome.

在实现量子位的主要途径中，基于马约拉纳的方法是最近推出的方法。它试图实现以拓扑保护方式存储量子信息的量子位。量子信息受到本地化和分离良好的马约拉纳零模式的非本地存储的保护，并通过利用其非阿贝尔量子统计进行操作。实现这些拓扑量子位在实验上具有挑战性，需要超导性、螺旋电子（由自旋轨道耦合产生）和时间反转对称性的破坏，所有这些都需要在一个不舒服的联盟中合作。在过去的十年中，已经探索了几种用于实现基于马约拉纳的拓扑量子位的候选材料系统，尽管仍在争论中，但不断积累，零模式确实正在实现的证据。本综述调查了这些方法所基于的基本物理原理、正在开发的材料系统以及该领域的当前状态。我们强调已经取得的进展和仍需克服的挑战。