Qubits that can be efficiently controlled are essential for the development of scalable quantum hardware. Although resonant control is used to execute high-fidelity quantum gates, the scalability is challenged by the integration of high-frequency oscillating signals, qubit cross-talk, and heating. Here, we show that by engineering the hopping of spins between quantum dots with a site-dependent spin quantization axis, quantum control can be established with discrete signals. We demonstrate hopping-based quantum logic and obtain single-qubit gate fidelities of 99.97%, coherent shuttling fidelities of 99.992% per hop, and a two-qubit gate fidelity of 99.3%, corresponding to error rates that have been predicted to allow for quantum error correction. We also show that hopping spins constitute a tuning method by statistically mapping the coherence of a 10-quantum dot system. Our results show that dense quantum dot arrays with sparse occupation could be developed for efficient and high-connectivity qubit registers.

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Electrically driven spin resonance is a powerful technique for controlling semiconductor spin qubits. However, it faces challenges in qubit addressability and off-resonance driving in larger systems. We demonstrate coherent bichromatic Rabi control of quantum dot hole spin qubits, offering a spatially selective approach for large qubit arrays. By applying simultaneous microwave bursts to different gate electrodes, we observe multichromatic resonance lines and resonance anticrossings that are caused by the ac Stark shift. Our theoretical framework aligns with experimental data, highlighting interdot motion as the dominant mechanism for bichromatic driving.

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Highly uniform quantum systems are essential for the practical implementation of scalable quantum processors. While quantum dot spin qubits based on semiconductor technology are a promising platform for large-scale quantum computing, their small size makes them particularly sensitive to their local environment. Here, we present a method to electrically obtain a high degree of uniformity in the intrinsic potential landscape using hysteretic shifts of the gate voltage characteristics. We demonstrate the tuning of pinch-off voltages in quantum dot devices over hundreds of millivolts that then remain stable at least for hours. Applying our method, we homogenize the pinch-off voltages of the plunger gates in a linear array for four quantum dots, reducing the spread in pinch-off voltages by one order of magnitude. This work provides a new tool for the tuning of quantum dot devices and offers new perspectives for the implementation of scalable spin qubit arrays.

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The co-integration of spin, superconducting, and topological systems is emerging as an exciting pathway for scalable and high-fidelity quantum information technology. High-mobility planar germanium is a front-runner semiconductor for building quantum processors with spin-qubits, but progress with hybrid superconductor-semiconductor devices is hindered by the difficulty in obtaining a superconducting hard gap, that is, a gap free of subgap states. Here, we address this challenge by developing a low-disorder, oxide-free interface between high-mobility planar germanium and a germanosilicide parent superconductor. This superconducting contact is formed by the thermally-activated solid phase reaction between a metal, platinum, and the Ge/SiGe semiconductor heterostructure. Electrical characterization reveals near-unity transparency in Josephson junctions and, importantly, a hard induced superconducting gap in quantum point contacts. Furthermore, we demonstrate phase control of a Josephson junction and study transport in a gated two-dimensional superconductor-semiconductor array towards scalable architectures. These results expand the quantum technology toolbox in germanium and provide new avenues for exploring monolithic superconductor-semiconductor quantum circuits towards scalable quantum information processing.

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Semiconducting nanowire Josephson junctions represent an attractive platform to investigate the anomalous Josephson effect and detect topological superconductivity. However, an external magnetic field generally suppresses the supercurrent through hybrid nanowire junctions and significantly limits the field range in which the supercurrent phenomena can be studied. In this work, we investigate the impact of the length of InSb-Al nanowire Josephson junctions on the supercurrent resilience against magnetic fields. We find that the critical parallel field of the supercurrent can be considerably enhanced by reducing the junction length. Particularly, in 30 nm long junctions supercurrent can persist up to 1.3 T parallel field─approaching the critical field of the superconducting film. Furthermore, we embed such short junctions into a superconducting loop and obtain the supercurrent interference at a parallel field of 1 T. Our findings are highly relevant for multiple experiments on hybrid nanowires requiring a magnetic-field-resilient supercurrent.@en

Drawing inspiration from classical semiconductor technology, a strategy to address many quantum dots through a small number of control lines is presented. The two-dimensional array consisting of 16 germanium quantum dots can be tuned in the few-hole regime with odd charge fillings and individually addressable tunnel couplings.@en

Semiconductor spin qubits have gained increasing attention as a possible platform to host a fault-tolerant quantum computer. First demonstrations of spin qubit arrays have been shown in a wide variety of semiconductor materials. The highest performance for spin qubit logic has been realized in silicon, but scaling silicon quantum dot arrays in two dimensions has proven to be challenging. By taking advantage of high-quality heterostructures and carefully designed gate patterns, we are able to form a tunnel coupled 2 × 2 quantum dot array in a ²⁸Si/SiGe heterostructure. We are able to load a single electron in all four quantum dots, thus reaching the (1,1,1,1) charge state. Furthermore, we characterize and control the tunnel coupling between all pairs of dots by measuring polarization lines over a wide range of barrier gate voltages. Tunnel couplings can be tuned from about 30 μ eV up to approximately 400 μ eV . These experiments provide insightful information on how to design 2D quantum dot arrays and constitute a first step toward the operation of spin qubits in ²⁸Si/SiGe quantum dots in two dimensions.

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The efficient control of a large number of qubits is one of the most challenging aspects for practical quantum computing. Current approaches in solid-state quantum technology are based on brute-force methods, where each and every qubit requires at least one unique control line—an approach that will become unsustainable when scaling to the required millions of qubits. Here, inspired by random-access architectures in classical electronics, we introduce the shared control of semiconductor quantum dots to efficiently operate a two-dimensional crossbar array in planar germanium. We tune the entire array, comprising 16 quantum dots, to the few-hole regime. We then confine an odd number of holes in each site to isolate an unpaired spin per dot. Moving forward, we demonstrate on a vertical and a horizontal double quantum dot a method for the selective control of the interdot coupling and achieve a tunnel coupling tunability over more than 10 GHz. The operation of a quantum electronic device with fewer control terminals than tunable experimental parameters represents a compelling step forward in the construction of scalable quantum technology.

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In superconducting quantum circuits, aluminum is one of the most widely used materials. It is currently also the superconductor of choice for the development of topological qubits. However, aluminum-based devices suffer from poor magnetic field compatibility. Herein, this limitation is resolved by showing that adatoms of heavy elements (e.g., platinum) increase the critical field of thin aluminum films by more than a factor of two. Using tunnel junctions, it is shown that the increased field resilience originates from spin-orbit scattering introduced by Pt. This property is exploited in the context of the superconducting proximity effect in semiconductor–superconductor hybrids, where it is shown that InSb nanowires strongly coupled to Al/Pt films can maintain superconductivity up to 7 T. The two-electron charging effect is shown to be robust against the presence of heavy adatoms. Additionally, non-local spectroscopy is used in a three-terminal geometry to probe the bulk of hybrid devices, showing that it remains free of sub-gap states. Finally, it is demonstrated that proximitized semiconductor states maintain their ability to Zeeman-split in an applied magnetic field. Combined with the chemical stability and well-known fabrication routes of aluminum, Al/Pt emerges as the natural successor to Al-based systems and is a compelling alternative to other superconductors, whenever high-field resilience is required.

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We systematically study three-terminal InSb-Al nanowire devices by using radio-frequency reflectometry. Tunneling spectroscopy measurements on both ends of the hybrid nanowires are performed while systematically varying the chemical potential, magnetic field, and junction transparencies. Identifying the lowest-energy state allows for the construction of the lowest- and zero-energy state diagrams, which show how the states evolve as a function of the aforementioned parameters. Importantly, comparing the diagrams taken for each end of the hybrids enables the identification of states which do not coexist simultaneously, ruling out a significant amount of the parameter space as candidates for a topological phase. Furthermore, altering junction transparencies filters out zero-energy states sensitive to a local gate potential. Such a measurement strategy significantly reduces the time necessary to identify a potential topological phase and minimizes the risk of falsely recognizing trivial bound states as Majorana zero modes.

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After a century from the quantum description of nature, the scientific community has laid the basis for using nature's properties to our advantage. The quantum technology vision stems from the idea of capitalizing these principles in various sectors, such as computation and communication. However, in contrast to classical processors, encoding and processing quantum information suffer from the quantum states' fragility to environmental disturbances. To mitigate their susceptibility, disruptive proposals suggested encoding information in non-local degrees of freedom such as in pairs of delocalized Majorana modes in topological superconductors. Although these materials remain elusive in nature, it is possible to engineer solid-state devices with the same properties such as semiconducting-superconducting nanowires. Starting from this idea, experimental signatures of zero-energy Majorana modes have been accompanied in recent years by continuous theoretical validations and rejections. The refinement in the theoretical understanding aligns with the swift advances on the experimental side, and this thesis finds its place in this phase of advancement, focusing on the intricate physics of the building blocks of Majorana qubits and proposing solutions to various nanofabrication challenges. In particular, we consider with attention the challenge of reading out the Majoranas information by detecting changes in their transmission phase. To this purpose, the minimal circuit requires a phase-coherent interferometer embedding a semiconducting-superconducting segment. Despite the apparent simplicity of this experiment, the Majoranas fingerprint in the transmission phase remains mostly unexplored due to the complexity of the circuit building blocks. Motivated by this challenge, our quest begins by considering each piece of the puzzle separately. We start by exploiting recent breakthroughs in the growth of nanowire-based interferometers to study the transmission phase of a large quantum dot, a setup similar to the one required for the Majoranas read-out. The conductance of this Aharonov-Bohm loop manifests gate- and magnetic field-tunable Fano resonances, that arise from the interference between electrons that travel through the reference arm and undergo resonant tunnelling in the dot. This experiment serves to point out the limitations of the currently available nanowire networks and provide critical insights for future topological interferometers' design. Thereafter, we explore the intricate physics of Coulomb semiconducting-superconducting wires, commonly known as hybrid island devices. Here, we demonstrate for the first time that InSb nanowires coupled to superconducting Al films manifest charging mediated by Cooper pairs of electrons. This observation implies that the low-energy spectrum of the semiconductor is fully proximitized by the superconductor, a fundamental requirement for achieving parity control in topological circuits. Starting from a Cooper pair condensate with an even electron parity, we can tune the nature of the island ground state with experimental knobs such as magnetic field and gate voltages. In particular, when a spin-resolved subgap state moves from the edge of the induced gap down to zero energy, single electrons can charge the island leading to conductance oscillations with a gate-voltage periodicity halved than for Cooper pairs. By mapping out such a 2e-to-1e transition in large ranges of gate voltage and magnetic field, we identify potential topological regions where the 1e oscillations are caused by discrete subgap states oscillating around zero energy. Part of the challenges concerning the realization of scalable hybrid devices lies in the complexity of their nanofabrication and the open questions in the material science involved. Stimulated by these interrogatives, the second part of this thesis introduces significant advances in the arena of hybrid nanowire devices. Having so far dealt with InSb nanowires with a maximum length of 3 µm, we turn our attention to the synthesis and the characterization of much longer InSb nanowires with a higher chemical purity than their predecessors and electron mobility exceeding 40000 cm2/Vs. Having quantified their pronounced spin-orbit interaction, adding a superconductor in the game is the logical next step. At the time of these experiments, hybrid nanowire devices were obtained by interfacing the two materials in situ, directly after the growth of the semiconductor. Despite ensuring a barrier-free semiconducting-superconducting interface, this approach has significant drawbacks in creating gate-tunable junctions due to the challenges in controlling the selectivity and the accuracy of the superconductor etching step. Considering that the semiconducting-superconducting interface is unstable even at room temperature, the devices quality, turnaround, and reproducibility become severely affected by extensive and low-yield fabrication processes. To circumvent these roadblocks, we have established a new fabrication paradigm based on on-chip shadow walls and shadow evaporations that offers substantial advances in device quality and reproducibility. Our approach results in devices with a hard induced superconducting gap and ballistic hybrid junctions. In Josephson junctions, we observe large gate-tunable supercurrents and high-order multiple Andreev reflections indicating the resulting junctions' exceptional coherence. Crucially, our approach enables the realization of three-terminal devices, where zero-bias conductance peaks emerge in a magnetic field concurrently at both boundaries of the one-dimensional hybrids. In the near future, correlating such Majoranas' signatures with the measurement of the induced gap in the bulk will enable a better classification of the observed subgap states. In conclusion, once this technology is applied to nanowire networks, it will allow verifying topological parity read-out schemes, which is a milestone toward verifying the Majorana states' exotic exchange statistics. @en

The realization of hybrid superconductor–semiconductor quantum devices, in particular a topological qubit, calls for advanced techniques to readily and reproducibly engineer induced superconductivity in semiconductor nanowires. Here, we introduce an on-chip fabrication paradigm based on shadow walls that offers substantial advances in device quality and reproducibility. It allows for the implementation of hybrid quantum devices and ultimately topological qubits while eliminating fabrication steps such as lithography and etching. This is critical to preserve the integrity and homogeneity of the fragile hybrid interfaces. The approach simplifies the reproducible fabrication of devices with a hard induced superconducting gap and ballistic normal-/superconductor junctions. Large gate-tunable supercurrents and high-order multiple Andreev reflections manifest the exceptional coherence of the resulting nanowire Josephson junctions. Our approach enables the realization of 3-terminal devices, where zero-bias conductance peaks emerge in a magnetic field concurrently at both boundaries of the one-dimensional hybrids.

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Semiconducting–superconducting hybrids are vital components for the realization of high-performance nanoscale devices. In particular, semiconducting–superconducting nanowires attract widespread interest owing to the possible presence of non-abelian Majorana zero modes, which are quasiparticles that hold promise for topological quantum computing. However, systematic search for Majoranas signatures is challenging because it requires reproducible hybrid devices and reliable fabrication methods. This work introduces a fabrication concept based on shadow walls that enables the in situ, selective, and consecutive depositions of superconductors and normal metals to form normal-superconducting junctions. Crucially, this method allows to realize devices in a single shot, eliminating fabrication steps after the synthesis of the fragile semiconductor/superconductor interface. At the atomic level, all investigated devices reveal a sharp and defect-free semiconducting–superconducting interface and, correspondingly, a hard induced superconducting gap resilient up to 2 T is measured electrically. While the cleanliness of the technique enables systematic studies of topological superconductivity in nanowires, it also allows for the synthesis of advanced nano-devices based on a wide range of material combinations and geometries while maintaining an exceptionally high interface quality.

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We measure the charge periodicity of Coulomb blockade conductance oscillations of a hybrid InSb-Al island as a function of gate voltage and parallel magnetic field. The periodicity changes from to at a gate-dependent value of the magnetic field, , decreasing from a high to a low limit upon increasing the gate voltage. In the gate voltage region between the two limits, which our numerical simulations indicate to be the most promising for locating Majorana zero modes, we observe correlated oscillations of peak spacings and heights. For positive gate voltages, the transition with low is due to the presence of nontopological states whose energy quickly disperses below the charging energy due to the orbital effect of the magnetic field. Our measurements highlight the importance of a careful exploration of the entire available phase space of a proximitized nanowire as a prerequisite to define future topological qubits.

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Detecting the transmission phase of a quantum dot via interferometry can reveal the symmetry of the orbitals and details of electron transport. Crucially, interferometry will enable the read-out of topological qubits based on one-dimensional nanowires. However, measuring the transmission phase of a quantum dot in a nanowire has not yet been established. Here, we exploit recent breakthroughs in the growth of one-dimensional networks and demonstrate interferometric read-out in a nanowire-based architecture. In our two-path interferometer, we define a quantum dot in one branch and use the other path as a reference arm. We observe Fano resonances stemming from the interference between electrons that travel through the reference arm and undergo resonant tunnelling in the quantum dot. Between consecutive Fano peaks, the transmission phase exhibits phase lapses that are affected by the presence of multiple trajectories in the interferometer. These results provide critical insights for the design of future topological qubits.

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Selective-area growth is a promising technique for enabling of the fabrication of the scalable III-V nanowire networks required to test proposals for Majorana-based quantum computing devices. However, the contours of the growth parameter window resulting in selective growth remain undefined. Herein, we present a set of experimental techniques that unambiguously establish the parameter space window resulting in selective III-V nanowire networks growth by molecular beam epitaxy. Selectivity maps are constructed for both GaAs and InAs compounds based on in situ characterization of growth kinetics on GaAs(001) substrates, where the difference in group III adatom desorption rates between the III-V surface and the amorphous mask area is identified as the primary mechanism governing selectivity. The broad applicability of this method is demonstrated by the successful realization of high-quality InAs and GaAs nanowire networks on GaAs, InP, and InAs substrates of both (001) and (111)B orientations as well as homoepitaxial InSb nanowire networks. Finally, phase coherence in Aharonov-Bohm ring experiments validates the potential of these crystals for nanoelectronics and quantum transport applications. This work should enable faster and better nanoscale crystal engineering over a range of compound semiconductors for improved device performance.

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High aspect-ratio InSb nanowires (NWs) of high chemical purity are sought for implementing advanced quantum devices. The growth of InSb NWs is challenging, generally requiring a stem of a foreign material for nucleation. Such a stem tends to limit the length of InSb NWs and its material becomes incorporated in the InSb segment. Here, we report on the growth of chemically pure InSb NWs tens of microns long. Using a selective-area mask in combination with gold as a catalyst allows complete omission of the stem, thus demonstrating that InSb NWs can grow directly from the substrate. The introduction of the selective-area mask gives rise to novel growth kinetics, demonstrating high growth rates and complete suppression of layer deposition on the mask for Sb-rich conditions. The crystal quality and chemical purity of these NWs is reflected in the significant enhancement of low-temperature electron mobility, yielding an average of 4.4 × 10⁴ cm²/(V s), compared to previously studied InSb NWs grown on stems.

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Superconducting coplanar-waveguide resonators that can operate in strong magnetic fields are important tools for a variety of high-frequency superconducting devices. Magnetic fields degrade resonator performance by creating Abrikosov vortices that cause resistive losses and frequency fluctuations or suppress the superconductivity entirely. To mitigate these effects, we investigate lithographically defined artificial defects in resonators fabricated from Nb-Ti-N superconducting films. We show that by controlling the vortex dynamics, the quality factor of resonators in perpendicular magnetic fields can be greatly enhanced. Coupled with the restriction of the device geometry to enhance the superconductors critical field, we demonstrate stable resonances that retain quality factors ≃105 at the single-photon power level in perpendicular magnetic fields up to B⊥ ≃20mT and parallel magnetic fields up to B⥠≃6T. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this technique for hybrid systems by integrating an In-Sb nanowire into a field-resilient superconducting resonator and use it to perform fast charge readout of a gate-defined double quantum dot at B=1T.

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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.

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