No Arabic abstract
We introduce selective area grown hybrid InAs/Al nanowires based on molecular beam epitaxy, allowing arbitrary semiconductor-superconductor networks containing loops and branches. Transport reveals a hard induced gap and unpoisoned 2e-periodic Coulomb blockade, with temperature dependent 1e features in agreement with theory. Coulomb peak spacing in parallel magnetic field displays overshoot, indicating an oscillating discrete near-zero subgap state consistent with device length. Finally, we investigate a loop network, finding strong spin-orbit coupling and a coherence length of several microns. These results demonstrate the potential of this platform for scalable topological networks among other applications.
We analyze the evidence of Majorana zero modes in nanowires that came from tunneling spectroscopy and other experiments, and scout the path to topologically protected states that are of interest for quantum computing. We illustrate the importance of the superconductor-semiconductor interface quality and sketch out where further progress in materials science of these interfaces can take us. Finally, we discuss the prospects of observing more exotic non-Abelian anyons based on the same materials platform, and how to make connections to high energy physics.
We present a superconductor-semiconductor material system that is both scalable and monolithically integrated on a silicon substrate. It uses selective area growth of Al-InAs hybrid structures on a planar III-V buffer layer, grown directly on a high resistivity silicon substrate. We characterized the electrical properties of this material system at millikelvin temperatures and observed a high average field-effect mobility of $mu approx 3200,mathrm{cm^2/Vs}$ for the InAs channel, and a hard induced superconducting gap. Josephson junctions exhibited a high interface transmission, $mathcal{T} approx 0.75 $, gate voltage tunable switching current with a product of critical current and normal state resistance, $I_{mathrm{C}}R_{mathrm{N}} approx 83,mathrm{mu V}$, and signatures of multiple Andreev reflections. These results pave the way for scalable and high coherent gate voltage tunable transmon devices and other superconductor-semiconductor hybrids fabricated directly on silicon.
Many present and future applications of superconductivity would benefit from electrostatic control of carrier density and tunneling rates, the hallmark of semiconductor devices. One particularly exciting application is the realization of topological superconductivity as a basis for quantum information processing. Proposals in this direction based on proximity effect in semiconductor nanowires are appealing because the key ingredients are currently in hand. However, previous instances of proximitized semiconductors show significant tunneling conductance below the superconducting gap, suggesting a continuum of subgap states---a situation that nullifies topological protection. Here, we report a hard superconducting gap induced by proximity effect in a semiconductor, using epitaxial Al-InAs superconductor-semiconductor nanowires. The hard gap, along with favorable material properties and gate-tunability, makes this new hybrid system attractive for a number of applications, as well as fundamental studies of mesoscopic superconductivity.
Semiconductor nanowires such as InAs and InSb are promising materials for studying Majorana zero-modes and demonstrating non-Abelian particle exchange relevant for topological quantum computing. While evidence for Majorana bound states in nanowires has been shown, the majority of these experiments are marked by significant disorder. In particular, the interfacial inhomogeneity between the superconductor and nanowire is strongly believed to be the main culprit for disorder and the resulting soft superconducting gap ubiquitous in tunneling studies of hybrid semiconductor-superconductor systems. Additionally, a lack of ballistic transport in nanowire systems can create bound states that mimic Majorana signatures. We resolve these problems through the development of selective-area epitaxy of Al to InSb nanowires, a technique applicable to other nanowires and superconductors. Epitaxial InSb-Al devices generically possess a hard superconducting gap and demonstrate ballistic 1D superconductivity and near perfect transmission of supercurrents in the single mode regime, requisites for engineering and controlling 1D topological superconductivity. Additionally, we demonstrate that epitaxial InSb-Al superconducting island devices, the building blocks for Majorana based quantum computing applications, prepared using selective area epitaxy can achieve micron scale ballistic 1D transport. Our results pave the way for the development of networks of ballistic superconducting electronics for quantum device applications.
We report on the precise integration of nm-scale topological insulator Josephson junctions into mm-scale superconducting quantum circuits via selective area epitaxy and local stencil lithography. By studying dielectric losses of superconducting microwave resonators fabricated on top of our selective area growth mask, we verify the compatibility of this in situ technique with microwave applications. We probe the microwave response of on-chip microwave cavities coupled to topological insulator-shunted superconducting qubit devices and observe a power dependence that indicates nonlinear qubit behaviour. Our method enables integration of complex networks of topological insulator nanostructures into superconducting circuits, paving the way for both novel voltage-controlled Josephson and topological qubits.