Stabilizing the Inverted Phase of a WSe₂/BLG/WSe₂ Heterostructure via Hydrostatic Pressure

Bilayer graphene (BLG) was recently shown to host a band-inverted phase with unconventional topology emerging from the Ising-type spin-orbit interaction (SOI) induced by the proximity of transition metal dichalcogenides with large intrinsic SOI. Here, we report the stabilization of this band-inverted phase in BLG symmetrically encapsulated in...

InSbAs Two-Dimensional Electron Gases as a Platform for Topological Superconductivity

Topological superconductivity can be engineered in semiconductors with strong spin-orbit interaction coupled to a superconductor. Experimental advances in this field have often been triggered by the development of new hybrid material systems. Among these, two-dimensional electron gases (2DEGs) are of particular interest due to their inherent...

Spin-Orbit Interaction and Induced Superconductivity in a One-Dimensional Hole Gas

Low dimensional semiconducting structures with strong spin-orbit interaction (SOI) and induced superconductivity attracted great interest in the search for topological superconductors. Both the strong SOI and hard superconducting gap are directly related to the topological protection of the predicted Majorana bound states. Here we explore the...

Signatures of Majorana Fermions in Hybrid Superconductor-Semiconductor Nanowire Devices

Majorana fermions are exotic elementary particles predicted in 1937 by Ettore Majorana. Although heavily searched for, they have never been found in nature up to date. In the past decades, with the progress in theory, theoretical physicists predicted that Majorana fermions might emerge in certain exotic classes of condensed matter systems, where...

Asymmetric current-phase relation due to spin-orbit interaction in semiconductor nanowire Josephson junction

We theoretically study the current-phase relation in semiconductor nanowire Josephson junction in the presence of spin-orbit interaction. In the nanowire, the impurity scattering with strong SO interaction is taken into account using the random matrix theory. In the absence of magnetic field, the Josephson current I and phase difference ?...

Electron spins in nanowire quantum dots

For small magnetic memories, the ultimate limit is a single magnetic particle, a single electron spin. A lot of research is put in developing devices that can utilize such a single spin memory. At the same time, there is also interest from a more fundamental point of view: on these small scales, Quantum Mechanics starts to play a role. Devices...

Rashba spin-orbit interaction in mesoscopic systems

In modern semiconductor devices, only the charge of electrons is being utilized for the manipulation and transport of information. The spin degree of freedom of the electrons has not been exploited in any commercial semiconductor application so far. People in the field of Spintronics are trying to find new or improved functionalities and...