Atomically precise graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) are predicted to exhibit exceptional edge-related properties, such as localized edge states, spin polarization, and half-metallicity. However, the absence of low-resistance nanoscale electrical contacts to the GNRs hinders harnessing their properties in field-effect transistors. In this paper, we make electrical contact with nine-atom-wide armchair GNRs using superconducting alloy MoRe as well as Pd (as a reference), which are two of the metals providing low-resistance contacts to carbon nanotubes. We take a step toward contacting a single GNR by fabricating electrodes with needlelike geometry, with about 20 nm tip diameter and 10 nm separation. To preserve the nanoscale geometry of the contacts, we develop a PMMA-assisted technique to transfer the GNRs onto the prepatterned electrodes. Our device characterizations as a function of bias voltage and temperature show thermally activated gate-tunable conductance in GNR-MoRe-based transistors.@en

This dissertation centers around two topics: graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) and superconductors. The aim of this thesis is to work towards combine these two topics, in order to study how superconducting correlations interact with magnetic correlations within graphene nanoribbons, such as the magnetic edge states present in the zigzag edges of graphene nanoribbons. To introduce superconducting correlations into a graphene nanoribbon, it is important that there is a highly electrically transparent interface between a superconductor and the graphene nanoribbon. This is the main scope of this work. This work presents research towards using molybdenum rhenium (MoRe) alloy as an electrical contact material for 9 atom wide armchair edge GNRs (9-AGNRs). MoRe electrodes with nanometer-size separations (30 nm and 6 nm) are made and compared with palladium electrodes. Experiments with contacting aerosol gold nanoparticles were performed to confirm that the MoRe electrodes are superconducting and capable of making a clean contact. Beside pure superconducting contacts, Palladium is considered as a contact material, which is made superconducting by the proximity effect. To study the proximity effect, electrical measurements at a base temperature of 30 mK were performed on variable thickness Nb-Au-Nb and Nb-Pd-Nb superconductor-normal metal-superconductor (SNS) junctions made by shadow mask evaporation. A constriction in the Pd layer allows for increasing the junction resistance by feedback-controlled electromigration until a tunnel contact is formed. As the final part of this research, a superconducting diode effect was identified and studied in these SNS junctions. @en

By using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) we find and characterize dispersive, energy-symmetric in-gap states in the iron-based superconductor FeTe0.55Se0.45, a material that exhibits signatures of topological superconductivity, and Majorana bound states at vortex cores or at impurity locations. We use a superconducting STM tip for enhanced energy resolution, which enables us to show that impurity states can be tuned through the Fermi level with varying tip-sample distance. We find that the impurity state is of the Yu-Shiba-Rusinov (YSR) type, and argue that the energy shift is caused by the low superfluid density in FeTe0.55Se0.45, which allows the electric field of the tip to slightly penetrate the sample. We model the newly introduced tip-gating scenario within the single-impurity Anderson model and find good agreement to the experimental data.@en

Paper has the potential to dramatically reduce the cost of electronic components. In fact, paper is 10 000 times cheaper than crystalline silicon, motivating the research to integrate electronic materials on paper substrates. Among the different electronic materials, van der Waals materials are attracting the interest of the scientific community working on paper-based electronics because of the combination of high electrical performance and mechanical flexibility. Up to now, different methods have been developed to pattern conducting, semiconducting and insulating van der Waals materials on paper but the integration of superconductors remains elusive. Here, the deposition of NbSe2, an illustrative van der Waals superconductor, on standard copy paper is demonstrated. The deposited NbSe2 films on paper display superconducting properties (e.g. observation of Meissner effect and resistance drop to zero-resistance state when cooled down below its critical temperature) similar to those of bulk NbSe2.@en

The Kagome lattice is an important fundamental structure in condensed matter physics for investigating the interplay of electron correlation, topology, and frustrated magnetism. Recent work on Kagome metals in the AV3Sb5 (A = K, Rb, and Cs) family has shown a multitude of correlation-driven distortions, including symmetry breaking charge density waves and nematic superconductivity at low temperatures. Here, we study the new Kagome metal Yb0.5Co3Ge3 and find a temperature-dependent kink in the resistivity that is highly similar to the AV3Sb5 behavior and is commensurate with an in-plane structural distortion of the Co Kagome lattice along with a doubling of the c-axis. The symmetry is lower below the transition temperature, with a breaking the in-plane mirror planes and C6 rotation, while gaining a screw axis along the c-direction. At very low temperatures, anisotropic negative magnetoresistance is observed, which may be related to anisotropic magnetism. This raises questions about the types of the distortions in Kagome nets and their resulting physical properties including superconductivity and magnetism.@en

Thermocurrent flowing through a single-molecule device contains valuable information about the quantum properties of the molecular structure and, in particular, on its electronic and phononic excitation spectra and entropy. Furthermore, accessing the thermoelectric heat-to-charge conversion efficiency experimentally can help to select suitable molecules for future energy conversion devices, which - predicted by theoretical studies - could reach unprecedented efficiencies. However, one of the major challenges in quantifying thermocurrents in nanoscale devices is to determine the exact temperature bias applied to the junction. In this work, we have incorporated a superconductor-normal metal-superconductor Josephson junction thermometer into a single-molecule device. The critical current of the Josephson junction depends accurately on minute changes in the electronic temperature in a wide temperature range from 100 mK to 1.6 K. Thus, we present a device architecture which can enable thermoelectric experiments on single molecules down to millikelvin temperatures with high precision. @en