Quantum Dots Coupled to Superconductors

The search for Majoranas bound states has witnessed heated efforts in the past decade. This field of research lies at the intersection of both scientific and commercial interests. The Majorana quasiparticle, being its own antiparticle and exhibiting non-abelian exchange statistics, is a unique member of the family of condensed-matter...

Induced superconductivity in antimony-based two-dimensional electron gases

Majorana zero modes (MZMs) are a topic of intense research as they constitute the main building block of topological qubits - a qubit type with potentially enhanced coherence time. A promising way to create these quantum states is to couple a one-dimensional (1D) semiconducting segment with spin-orbit interaction to a superconductor, in the...

Superconducting islands and gate-based readout in semiconductor nanowires

Quantum computers can solve some problems exponentially faster than classical computers. Unfortunately, the computational power of quantum computers is currently limited by the number of working qubits. It is difficult to scale up these systems, because qubits are easily affected by noise in their environment. This noise leads to decoherence:...

Superconducting quantum interference in semiconducting Josephson junctions

A topological superconductor is a new state of matter that attract a lot of interest for its potential application in quantum computers. However, there is no single material known to host this state of matter. In this thesis, combinations of superconductors and semiconductors are investigated experimentally with the goal to engineer such a...