No Arabic abstract
By studying the time-dependent axial and radial growth of InSb nanowires, we map the conditions for the synthesis of single-crystalline InSb nanocrosses by molecular beam epitaxy. Low-temperature electrical measurements of InSb nanocross devices with local gate control on individual terminals exhibit quantized conductance and are used to probe the spatial distribution of the conducting channels. Tuning to a situation where the nanocross junction is connected by few-channel quantum point contacts in the connecting nanowire terminals, we show that transport through the junction is ballistic except close to pinch-off. Combined with a new concept for shadow-epitaxy of patterned superconductors on nanocrosses, the structures reported here show promise for the realization of non-trivial topological states in multi-terminal Josephson Junctions.
Due to a strong spin-orbit interaction and a large Lande g-factor, InSb plays an important role in research on Majorana fermions. To further explore novel properties of Majorana fermions, hybrid devices based on quantum wells are conceived as an alternative approach to nanowires. In this work, we report a pronounced conductance quantization of quantum point contact devices in InSb/InAlSb quantum wells. Using a rotating magnetic field, we observe a large in-plane (|g1|=26) and out-of-plane (|g1|=52) g-factor anisotropy. Additionally, we investigate crossings of subbands with opposite spins and extract the electron effective mass from magnetic depopulation of one-dimensional subbands.
Majorana zero-modes hold great promise for topological quantum computing. Tunnelling spectroscopy in electrical transport is the primary tool to identify the presence of Majorana zero-modes, for instance as a zero-bias peak (ZBP) in differential-conductance. The Majorana ZBP-height is predicted to be quantized at the universal conductance value of 2e2/h at zero temperature. Interestingly, this quantization is a direct consequence of the famous Majorana symmetry, particle equals antiparticle. The Majorana symmetry protects the quantization against disorder, interactions, and variations in the tunnel coupling. Previous experiments, however, have shown ZBPs much smaller than 2e2/h, with a recent observation of a peak-height close to 2e2/h. Here, we report a quantized conductance plateau at 2e2/h in the zero-bias conductance measured in InSb semiconductor nanowires covered with an Al superconducting shell. Our ZBP-height remains constant despite changing parameters such as the magnetic field and tunnel coupling, i.e. a quantized conductance plateau. We distinguish this quantized Majorana peak from possible non-Majorana origins, by investigating its robustness on electric and magnetic fields as well as its temperature dependence. The observation of a quantized conductance plateau strongly supports the existence of non-Abelian Majorana zero-modes in the system, consequently paving the way for future braiding experiments.
Majorana Zero Modes (MZMs) are prime candidates for robust topological quantum bits, holding a great promise for quantum computing. Semiconducting nanowires with strong spin orbit coupling offers a promising platform to harness one-dimensional electron transport for Majorana physics. Demonstrating the topological nature of MZMs relies on braiding, accomplished by moving MZMs around each other in a certain sequence. Most of the proposed Majorana braiding circuits require nanowire networks with minimal disorder. Here, the electronic transport across a junction between two merged InSb nanowires is studied to investigate how disordered these nanowire networks are. Conductance quantization plateaus are observed in all contact pairs of the epitaxial InSb nanowire networks; the hallmark of ballistic transport behavior.
The universal quantization of thermal conductance provides information on the topological order of a state beyond electrical conductance. Such measurements have become possible only recently, and have discovered, in particular, that the value of the observed thermal conductance of the 5/2 state is not consistent with either the Pfaffian or the anti-Pfaffian model, motivating several theoretical articles. The analysis of the experiments has been made complicated by the presence of counter-propagating edge channels arising from edge reconstruction, an inevitable consequence of separating the dopant layer from the GaAs quantum well. In particular, it has been found that the universal quantization requires thermalization of downstream and upstream edge channels. Here we measure the thermal conductance in hexagonal boron nitride encapsulated graphene devices of sizes much smaller than the thermal relaxation length of the edge states. We find the quantization of thermal conductance within 5% accuracy for { u} = 1, 4/3, 2 and 6 plateaus and our results strongly suggest the absence of edge reconstruction for fractional quantum Hall in graphene, making it uniquely suitable for interference phenomena exploiting paths of exotic quasiparticles along the edge.
We introduce a non-linear frequency dependent D+1 terminal conductance that characterizes a D dimensional Fermi gas, generalizing the Landauer conductance in D=1. For a ballistic conductor we show that this conductance is quantized and probes the Euler characteristic of the Fermi sea. We critically address the roles of electrical contacts and of Fermi liquid interactions, and we propose experiments on 2D Dirac materials such as graphene using a triple point contact geometry.