Quantized conductance doubling and hard gap in a two-dimensional semiconductor-superconductor heterostructure
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Quantized conductance doubling and hard gap in a two-dimensional semiconductor-superconductor heterostructure. / Kjærgaard, Morten; Nichele, F; Suominen, Henri Juhani; Nowak, M P; Wimmer, M; Akhmerov, A R; Folk, J A; Flensberg, Karsten; Shabani, J; Palmstrøm, C J; Marcus, Charles M.
In: Nature Communications, Vol. 7, 12841, 30.09.2016.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Quantized conductance doubling and hard gap in a two-dimensional semiconductor-superconductor heterostructure
AU - Kjærgaard, Morten
AU - Nichele, F
AU - Suominen, Henri Juhani
AU - Nowak, M P
AU - Wimmer, M
AU - Akhmerov, A R
AU - Folk, J A
AU - Flensberg, Karsten
AU - Shabani, J
AU - Palmstrøm, C J
AU - Marcus, Charles M.
N1 - [Qdev]
PY - 2016/9/30
Y1 - 2016/9/30
N2 - Coupling a two-dimensional (2D) semiconductor heterostructure to a superconductor opens new research and technology opportunities, including fundamental problems in mesoscopic superconductivity, scalable superconducting electronics, and new topological states of matter. One route towards topological matter is by coupling a 2D electron gas with strong spin-orbit interaction to an s-wave superconductor. Previous efforts along these lines have been adversely affected by interface disorder and unstable gating. Here we show measurements on a gateable InGaAs/InAs 2DEG with patterned epitaxial Al, yielding devices with atomically pristine interfaces between semiconductor and superconductor. Using surface gates to form a quantum point contact (QPC), we find a hard superconducting gap in the tunnelling regime. When the QPC is in the open regime, we observe a first conductance plateau at 4e(2)/h, consistent with theory. The hard-gap semiconductor-superconductor system demonstrated here is amenable to top-down processing and provides a new avenue towards low-dissipation electronics and topological quantum systems.
AB - Coupling a two-dimensional (2D) semiconductor heterostructure to a superconductor opens new research and technology opportunities, including fundamental problems in mesoscopic superconductivity, scalable superconducting electronics, and new topological states of matter. One route towards topological matter is by coupling a 2D electron gas with strong spin-orbit interaction to an s-wave superconductor. Previous efforts along these lines have been adversely affected by interface disorder and unstable gating. Here we show measurements on a gateable InGaAs/InAs 2DEG with patterned epitaxial Al, yielding devices with atomically pristine interfaces between semiconductor and superconductor. Using surface gates to form a quantum point contact (QPC), we find a hard superconducting gap in the tunnelling regime. When the QPC is in the open regime, we observe a first conductance plateau at 4e(2)/h, consistent with theory. The hard-gap semiconductor-superconductor system demonstrated here is amenable to top-down processing and provides a new avenue towards low-dissipation electronics and topological quantum systems.
U2 - 10.1038/ncomms12841
DO - 10.1038/ncomms12841
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 27682268
VL - 7
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
SN - 2041-1723
M1 - 12841
ER -
ID: 167479451