Effect of in-plane alignment on selective area grown homo-epitaxial nanowires

In-plane selective area growth (SAG) of III-V nanowires (NWs) has emerged as a scalable materials platform for quantum electronics and photonics applications. Most applications impose strict requirements on the material characteristics which makes optimization of the crystal quality vital. Alignment of in-plane SAG NWs with respect to the substrate symmetry is of importance due to the large substrate-NW interface as well as to obtain nanostructures with well-defined facets. Understanding the role of mis-orientation is thus important for designing devices and interpretation of electrical performance of devices. Here we study the effect of mis-orientation on morphology of selectively grown NWs oriented along the [1 1̅ 1̅] direction on GaAs(2 1 1)B. Atomic force microscopy is performed to extract facet roughness as a measure of structural quality. Further, we evaluate the dependence of material incorporation in NWs on the orientation and present the facet evolution in between two high symmetry in-plane orientations. By investigating the length dependence of NW morphology, we find that the morphology of ≈1μm long nominally aligned NWs remains unaffected by the unintentional misalignment associated with the processing and alignment of the sample under study. Finally, we show that using Sb as a surfactant during growth improves root-mean-square facet roughness for large misalignment but does not lower it for nominally aligned NWs.

Catchment properties and the photosynthetic trait composition of freshwater plant communities

Unlike in land plants, photosynthesis in many aquatic plants relies on bicarbonate in addition to carbon dioxide (CO2) to compensate for the low diffusivity and potential depletion of CO2 in water. Concentrations of bicarbonate and CO2 vary greatly with catchment geology. In this study, we investigate whether there is a link between these concentrations and the frequency of freshwater plants possessing the bicarbonate use trait. We show, globally, that the frequency of plant species with this trait increases with bicarbonate concentration. Regionally, however, the frequency of bicarbonate use is reduced at sites where the CO2 concentration is substantially above the air equilibrium, consistent with this trait being an adaptation to carbon limitation. Future anthropogenic changes of bicarbonate and CO2 concentrations may alter the species compositions of freshwater plant communities.

Evolution of Nanowire Transmon Qubits and Their Coherence in a Magnetic Field

We present an experimental study of flux- and gate-tunable nanowire transmons with state-of-the-art relaxation time allowing quantitative extraction of flux and charge noise coupling to the Josephson energy. We evidence coherence sweet spots for charge, tuned by voltage on a proximal side gate, where first order sensitivity to switching two-level systems and background 1/f noise is minimized. Next, we investigate the evolution of a nanowire transmon in a parallel magnetic field up to 70 mT, the upper bound set by the closing of the induced gap. Several features observed in the field dependence of qubit energy relaxation and dephasing times are not fully understood. Using nanowires with a thinner, partially covering Al shell will enable operation of these circuits up to 0.5 T, a regime relevant for topological quantum computation and other applications.

Transport Signatures of Quasiparticle Poisoning in a Majorana Island

We investigate effects of quasiparticle poisoning in a Majorana island with strong tunnel coupling to normal-metal leads. In addition to the main Coulomb blockade diamonds, "shadow" diamonds appear, shifted by 1e in gate voltage, consistent with transport through an excited (poisoned) state of the island. Comparison to a simple model yields an estimate of parity lifetime for the strongly coupled island (∼1  μs) and sets a bound for a weakly coupled island (>10  μs). Fluctuations in the gate-voltage spacing of Coulomb peaks at high field, reflecting Majorana hybridization, are enhanced by the reduced lever arm at strong coupling. When converted from gate voltage to energy units, fluctuations are consistent with previous measurements.

Semiconductor-Nanowire-Based Superconducting Qubit

We introduce a hybrid qubit based on a semiconductor nanowire with an epitaxially grown superconductor layer. Josephson energy of the transmonlike device ("gatemon") is controlled by an electrostatic gate that depletes carriers in a semiconducting weak link region. Strong coupling to an on-chip microwave cavity and coherent qubit control via gate voltage pulses is demonstrated, yielding reasonably long relaxation times (~0.8 μs) and dephasing times (~1 μs), exceeding gate operation times by 2 orders of magnitude, in these first-generation devices. Because qubit control relies on voltages rather than fluxes, dissipation in resistive control lines is reduced, screening reduces cross talk, and the absence of flux control allows operation in a magnetic field, relevant for topological quantum information.

Extreme mobility enhancement of two-dimensional electron gases at oxide interfaces by charge-transfer-induced modulation doping

Two-dimensional electron gases (2DEGs) formed at the interface of insulating complex oxides promise the development of all-oxide electronic devices. These 2DEGs involve many-body interactions that give rise to a variety of physical phenomena such as superconductivity, magnetism, tunable metal-insulator transitions and phase separation. Increasing the mobility of the 2DEG, however, remains a major challenge. Here, we show that the electron mobility is enhanced by more than two orders of magnitude by inserting a single-unit-cell insulating layer of polar La(1-x)Sr(x)MnO3 (x = 0, 1/8, and 1/3) at the interface between disordered LaAlO3 and crystalline SrTiO3 produced at room temperature. Resonant X-ray spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy show that the manganite layer undergoes unambiguous electronic reconstruction, leading to modulation doping of such atomically engineered complex oxide heterointerfaces. At low temperatures, the modulation-doped 2DEG exhibits Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations and fingerprints of the quantum Hall effect, demonstrating unprecedented high mobility and low electron density.

Epitaxy of semiconductor-superconductor nanowires

Controlling the properties of semiconductor/metal interfaces is a powerful method for designing functionality and improving the performance of electrical devices. Recently semiconductor/superconductor hybrids have appeared as an important example where the atomic scale uniformity of the interface plays a key role in determining the quality of the induced superconducting gap. Here we present epitaxial growth of semiconductor-metal core-shell nanowires by molecular beam epitaxy, a method that provides a conceptually new route to controlled electrical contacting of nanostructures and the design of devices for specialized applications such as topological and gate-controlled superconducting electronics. Our materials of choice, InAs/Al grown with epitaxially matched single-plane interfaces, and alternative semiconductor/metal combinations allowing epitaxial interface matching in nanowires are discussed. We formulate the grain growth kinetics of the metal phase in general terms of continuum parameters and bicrystal symmetries. The method realizes the ultimate limit of uniform interfaces and seems to solve the soft-gap problem in superconducting hybrid structures.

Hard gap in epitaxial semiconductor-superconductor nanowires

Many present and future applications of superconductivity would benefit from electrostatic control of carrier density and tunnelling 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 the proximity effect in semiconductor nanowires are appealing because the key ingredients are currently in hand. However, previous instances of proximitized semiconductors show significant tunnelling 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 the proximity effect in a semiconductor, using epitaxial InAs-Al semiconductor-superconductor nanowires. The hard gap, together with favourable material properties and gate-tunability, makes this new hybrid system attractive for a number of applications, as well as fundamental studies of mesoscopic superconductivity.

Tunneling spectroscopy of quasiparticle bound states in a spinful Josephson junction

The spectrum of a segment of InAs nanowire, confined between two superconducting leads, was measured as function of gate voltage and superconducting phase difference using a third normal-metal tunnel probe. Subgap resonances for odd electron occupancy-interpreted as bound states involving a confined electron and a quasiparticle from the superconducting leads, reminiscent of Yu-Shiba-Rusinov states-evolve into Kondo-related resonances at higher magnetic fields. An additional zero-bias peak of unknown origin is observed to coexist with the quasiparticle bound states.

Gate-dependent orbital magnetic moments in carbon nanotubes

We investigate how the orbital magnetic moments of electron and hole states in a carbon nanotube quantum dot depend on the number of carriers on the dot. Low temperature transport measurements are carried out in a setup where the device can be rotated in an applied magnetic field, thus enabling accurate alignment with the nanotube axis. The field dependence of the level structure is measured by excited state spectroscopy and excellent correspondence with a single-particle calculation is found. In agreement with band structure calculations we find a decrease of the orbital magnetic moment with increasing electron or hole occupation of the dot, with a scale given by the band gap of the nanotube.

Giant fluctuations and gate control of the g-factor in InAs nanowire quantum dots

We study the g-factor of discrete electron states in InAs nanowire based quantum dots. The g values are determined from the magnetic field splitting of the zero bias anomaly due to the spin 1/2 Kondo effect. Unlike to previous studies based on 2DEG quantum dots, the g-factors of neighboring electron states show a surprisingly large fluctuation: g can scatter between 2 and 18. Furthermore electric gate tunability of the g-factor is demonstrated.