Hard gap in epitaxial semiconductor-superconductor nanowires

Abstract

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.

Combined text and supplementary information, Nature Nanotechnology (2015)

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Cited by in corpus (57)

• Majorana bound states in a coupled quantum-dot hybrid-nanowire system
• Epitaxy of Semiconductor-Superconductor nanowires
• Scaling of Majorana Zero-Bias Conductance Peaks
• Ballistic superconductivity in semiconductor nanowires
• Transparent Semiconductor-Superconductor Interface and Induced Gap in an Epitaxial Heterostructure Josephson Junction
• Roadmap to Majorana surface codes
• Majorana splitting from critical currents in Josephson junctions
• On controlling the bound states in quantum-dot hybrid-nanowire
• A perspective on semiconductor-based superconducting qubits
• Theory of Majorana zero modes in unconventional superconductors
• Zero-energy pinning from interactions in Majorana nanowires
• Conduction Channels of an InAs-Al nanowire Josephson weak link
• Proximity-induced Shiba states in a molecular junction
• In-plane selective area InSb-Al nanowire quantum networks
• Finite-size effects in a nanowire strongly coupled to a thin superconducting shell
• Direct cavity detection of Majorana pairs
• Spectroscopy of the superconducting proximity effect in nanowires using integrated quantum dots
• Tunneling transport in NSN junctions made of Majorana nanowires across the topological quantum phase transition
• Topological superconductivity and Majorana states in low-dimensional systems
• Robustness of Majorana bound states in the short junction limit
• Protocol to identify a topological superconducting phase in a three-terminal device
• DIII Topological Superconductivity with Emergent Time-Reversal Symmetry
• Regaining a spatial dimension: Mechanically transferrable two-dimensional InAs nanofins grown by selective area epitaxy
• Proximity Effect Transfer from NbTi into a Semiconductor Heterostructure via Epitaxial Aluminum
• Phenomenology of soft gap, zero bias peak, and zero mode splitting in ideal Majorana nanowires
• Ballistic PbTe Nanowire Devices
• Effects of the electrostatic environment on superlattice Majorana nanowires
• Hybrid Superconductor-Quantum Point Contact Devices using InSb Nanowires
• Progress in superconductor-semiconductor topological Josephson junctions
• Fusion rules in a Majorana single-charge transistor
• Controlled DC Monitoring of a Superconducting Qubit
• High transparency Bi2Se3 topological insulator nanoribbon Josephson junctions with low resistive noise properties
• Nb/InAs nanowire proximity junctions from Josephson to quantum dot regimes
• Observation of fractional quantum Hall effect in an InAs quantum well
• Multiple topological transitions driven by the interplay of normal scattering and Andreev scattering
• Supercurrent generation by spin injection in an s-wave superconductor-Rashba metal bilayer
• Inductive microwave response of Yu-Shiba-Rusinov states
• Geometry -- dependent effects in Majorana nanowires
• Renormalization of the Majorana bound state decay length in a perpendicular magnetic field
• Toward durable Al-InSb hybrid heterostructures via epitaxy of 2ML interfacial InAs screening layers
• Competing energy scales in topological superconducting heterostructures
• Manifestation of Majorana modes overlap in the Aharonov-Bohm effect
• Spectroscopic Visualization of a Robust Electronic Response of Semiconducting Nanowires to Deposition of Superconducting Islands
• InAs/MoRe hybrid semiconductor/superconductor nanowire devices
• Thermoelectric processes of quantum normal-superconductor interfaces
• Quantum Criticality in Resonant Andreev Conduction
• Gate-tunable Superconductivity in Hybrid InSb-Pb Nanowires
• Observation of an Abrupt 3D-2D Morphological Transition in Thin Al Layers Grown by MBE on InGaAs surface
• Disorder Suppression in Topological Semiconductor-Superconductor Junctions
• Helical and topological phase detection based on nonlocal conductance measurements in a three terminal junction
• Exchangeless braiding of Majorana zero modes in weakly coupled Kitaev chains
• Polarization Controlled Supercurrent in Ferroelectric Josephson Junction
• Towards a $\cos (2\phi )$ Josephson element using aluminum junctions with well-transmitted channels
• Spin splitting, Kondo correlation and singlet-doublet quantum phase transition in a superconductor-coupled InSb nanosheet quantum dot
• Classical simulation of qubit by a new hardware design and its applications
• Hard superconducting gap and vortex-state spectroscopy in NbSe${}_2$ van der Waals tunnel junctions
• Measurements of cyclotron resonance of the interfacial states in strong spin-orbit coupled 2D electron gases proximitized with aluminum