Parity transitions in the superconducting ground state of hybrid InSb–Al Coulomb islands

Jie Shen (), Sebastian Heedt, Francesco Borsoi, Bernard van Heck, Sasa Gazibegovic, Roy L. M. Op het Veld, Diana Car, John A. Logan, Mihir Pendharkar, Senja J. J. Ramakers, Guanzhong Wang, Di Xu, Daniël Bouman, Attila Geresdi, Chris J. Palmstrøm, Erik P. A. M. Bakkers and Leo P. Kouwenhoven ()
Additional contact information
Jie Shen: Delft University of Technology
Sebastian Heedt: Delft University of Technology
Francesco Borsoi: Delft University of Technology
Bernard van Heck: University of California Santa Barbara
Sasa Gazibegovic: Delft University of Technology
Roy L. M. Op het Veld: Delft University of Technology
Diana Car: Delft University of Technology
John A. Logan: University of California Santa Barbara
Mihir Pendharkar: University of California Santa Barbara
Senja J. J. Ramakers: Delft University of Technology
Guanzhong Wang: Delft University of Technology
Di Xu: Delft University of Technology
Daniël Bouman: Delft University of Technology
Attila Geresdi: Delft University of Technology
Chris J. Palmstrøm: University of California Santa Barbara
Erik P. A. M. Bakkers: Delft University of Technology
Leo P. Kouwenhoven: Delft University of Technology

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract The number of electrons in small metallic or semiconducting islands is quantised. When tunnelling is enabled via opaque barriers this number can change by an integer. In superconductors the addition is in units of two electron charges (2e), reflecting that the Cooper pair condensate must have an even parity. This ground state (GS) is foundational for all superconducting qubit devices. Here, we study a hybrid superconducting–semiconducting island and find three typical GS evolutions in a parallel magnetic field: a robust 2e-periodic even-parity GS, a transition to a 2e-periodic odd-parity GS, and a transition from a 2e- to a 1e-periodic GS. The 2e-periodic odd-parity GS persistent in gate-voltage occurs when a spin-resolved subgap state crosses zero energy. For our 1e-periodic GSs we explicitly show the origin being a single zero-energy state gapped from the continuum, i.e., compatible with an Andreev bound states stabilized at zero energy or the presence of Majorana zero modes.

Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-07279-7

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