Spin-orbit interaction (SOI) plays a key role in creating Majorana zero modes in semiconductor nanowires proximity coupled to a superconductor. We track the evolution of the induced superconducting gap in InSb nanowires coupled to a NbTiN superconductor in a large range of magnetic field strengths and orientations. Based on realistic simulations of our devices, we reveal SOI with a strength of 0.15-0.35 eV\requiremediawiki−texvcA˚. Our approach identifies the direction of the spin-orbit field, which is strongly affected by the superconductor geometry and electrostatic gates.
@article{arxiv.1807.01940,
title = {Spin-Orbit Protection of Induced Superconductivity in Majorana Nanowires},
author = {Jouri D. S. Bommer and Hao Zhang and Önder Gül and Bas Nijholt and Michael Wimmer and Filipp N. Rybakov and Julien Garaud and Donjan Rodic and Egor Babaev and Matthias Troyer and Diana Car and Sébastien R. Plissard and Erik P. A. M. Bakkers and Kenji Watanabe and Takashi Taniguchi and Leo P. Kouwenhoven},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1807.01940},
year = {2019}
}
Comments
7 pages, 4 figures. Supplemental Material as ancillary file