Epitaxial Indium on PbTe Nanowires for Quantum Devices

Abstract: Superconductivity in semiconductor nanostructures contains fascinating physics due to the interplay between Andreev reflection, spin, and orbital interactions. New material hybrids can access new quantum regimes and phenomena. Here, we report the realization of epitaxial indium thin films on PbTe nanowires.The film is continuous and forms an atomically sharp interface with PbTe.Tunneling devices reveal a hard superconducting gap.The gap size, 1.08 to 1.18 meV, is twice as large as bulk indium (around 0.5 meV), due to the presence of PbTe. A similar enhancement is also observed in the critical temperature of In on a PbTe substrate. Zero bias conductance peaks appear at finite magnetic fields. The effective g-factor (15 to 45) is notably enhanced compared to bare PbTe wires (less than 10) due to the presence of In, differing from Al-hybrids. Josephson devices exhibit gate-tunable supercurrents. The PbTe-In hybrid enhances the properties of both, the superconductivity of In and g-factors of PbTe, and thus may enable exotic phases of matter such as topological superconductivity.