1 research outputs found
Parity lifetime of bound states in a proximitized semiconductor nanowire
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 introduce a new physical system comprised of
a gate-confined semiconductor nanowire with an epitaxially grown superconductor
layer, yielding an isolated, proximitized nanowire segment. We identify
Andreev-like bound states in the semiconductor via 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.Comment: text and supplementary information combine