Charge localization and reentrant superconductivity in a quasi-ballistic InAs nanowire coupled to superconductors
A semiconductor nanowire with strong spin-orbit coupling in proximity to a superconductor is predicted to display Majorana edge states emerging under a properly oriented magnetic field. The experimental investigation of these exotic states requires assessing the one-dimensional (1D) character of the...
| Autores: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2019 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universidad Autónoma de Madrid |
| Repositorio: | Biblos-e Archivo. Repositorio Institucional de la UAM |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:repositorio.uam.es:10486/690967 |
| Acceso en línea: | http://hdl.handle.net/10486/690967 https://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aav1235 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Majorana edge Semiconductor nanowire Superconductor InAs nanowire Física |
| Sumario: | A semiconductor nanowire with strong spin-orbit coupling in proximity to a superconductor is predicted to display Majorana edge states emerging under a properly oriented magnetic field. The experimental investigation of these exotic states requires assessing the one-dimensional (1D) character of the nanowire and understanding the superconducting proximity effect in the presence of a magnetic field. Here, we explore the quasi-ballistic 1D transport regime of an InAs nanowire with Ta contacts. Fine-tuned by means of local gates, the observed plateaus of approximately quantized conductance hide the presence of a localized electron, giving rise to a lurking Coulomb blockade effect and Kondo physics. When Ta becomes superconducting, this local charge causes an unusual, reentrant magnetic field dependence of the supercurrent, which we ascribe to a 0 - p transition. Our results underline the relevant role of unintentional charge localization in the few-channel regime where helical subbands and Majorana quasi-particles are expected to arise |
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