Parity lifetime of bound states in a proximitized semiconductor nanowire

TY - JOUR

T1 - Parity lifetime of bound states in a proximitized semiconductor nanowire

AU - Higginbotham, Andrew Patrick

AU - Albrecht, Sven Marian

AU - Kirsanskas, Gediminas

AU - Chang, Willy

AU - Kuemmeth, Ferdinand

AU - Krogstrup, Peter

AU - Jespersen, Thomas Sand

AU - Nygård, Jesper

AU - Flensberg, Karsten

AU - Marcus, Charles M.

N1 - [QDev]

PY - 2015/12/1

Y1 - 2015/12/1

N2 - Quasiparticle excitations can compromise the performance of superconducting devices, causing high-frequency dissipation, decoherence in Josephson qubits, and braiding errors in proposed Majorana-based topological quantum computers. Quasiparticle dynamics have been studied in detail in metallic superconductors but remain relatively unexplored in semiconductor-superconductor structures, which are now being intensely pursued in the context of topological superconductivity. To this end, we use a system comprising a gate-confined semiconductor nanowire with an epitaxially grown superconductor layer, yielding an isolated, proximitized nanowire segment. We identify bound states in the semiconductor by means of bias spectroscopy, determine the characteristic temperatures and magnetic fields for quasiparticle excitations, and extract a parity lifetime (poisoning time) of the bound state in the semiconductor exceeding 10 ms.

AB - Quasiparticle excitations can compromise the performance of superconducting devices, causing high-frequency dissipation, decoherence in Josephson qubits, and braiding errors in proposed Majorana-based topological quantum computers. Quasiparticle dynamics have been studied in detail in metallic superconductors but remain relatively unexplored in semiconductor-superconductor structures, which are now being intensely pursued in the context of topological superconductivity. To this end, we use a system comprising a gate-confined semiconductor nanowire with an epitaxially grown superconductor layer, yielding an isolated, proximitized nanowire segment. We identify bound states in the semiconductor by means of bias spectroscopy, determine the characteristic temperatures and magnetic fields for quasiparticle excitations, and extract a parity lifetime (poisoning time) of the bound state in the semiconductor exceeding 10 ms.

KW - cond-mat.mes-hall

KW - cond-mat.supr-con

U2 - 10.1038/nphys3461

DO - 10.1038/nphys3461

M3 - Journal article

SN - 1745-2473

VL - 11

SP - 1017

EP - 1021

JO - Nature Physics

JF - Nature Physics

IS - 12

ER -