Conductance through a helical state in an Indium antimonide nanowire
J. Kammhuber (TU Delft - QRD/Kouwenhoven Lab, Kavli institute of nanoscience Delft, TU Delft - QuTech Advanced Research Centre)
M. C. Cassidy (TU Delft - QRD/Kouwenhoven Lab, TU Delft - QuTech Advanced Research Centre, Kavli institute of nanoscience Delft)
F. Pei (TU Delft - QuTech Advanced Research Centre, TU Delft - QN/Quantum Transport, Kavli institute of nanoscience Delft)
M. P. Nowak (AGH University of Science and Technology, TU Delft - QRD/Kouwenhoven Lab, Kavli institute of nanoscience Delft, TU Delft - QuTech Advanced Research Centre)
A. Vuik (TU Delft - QN/Akhmerov Group, TU Delft - QuTech Advanced Research Centre, Kavli institute of nanoscience Delft)
O. Gul (TU Delft - QRD/Kouwenhoven Lab, TU Delft - QuTech Advanced Research Centre, Kavli institute of nanoscience Delft)
D. Car (TU Delft - QRD/Kouwenhoven Lab, Eindhoven University of Technology)
S. R. Plissard (Université de Toulouse)
E. P. A. M. Bakkers (TU Delft - QN/Bakkers Lab, Kavli institute of nanoscience Delft, Eindhoven University of Technology, TU Delft - QuTech Advanced Research Centre)
M.T. Wimmer (Kavli institute of nanoscience Delft, TU Delft - Qubit Research Division, TU Delft - QuTech Advanced Research Centre)
L. P. Kouwenhoven (TU Delft - QRD/Kouwenhoven Lab, Kavli institute of nanoscience Delft, TU Delft - QuTech Advanced Research Centre)
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Abstract
The motion of an electron and its spin are generally not coupled. However in a one-dimensional material with strong spin-orbit interaction (SOI) a helical state may emerge at finite magnetic fields, where electrons of opposite spin will have opposite momentum. The existence of this helical state has applications for spin filtering and cooper pair splitter devices and is an essential ingredient for realizing topologically protected quantum computing using Majorana zero modes. Here, we report measurements of a quantum point contact in an indium antimonide nanowire. At magnetic fields exceeding 3 T, the 2 e2/h conductance plateau shows a re-entrant feature toward 1 e2/h which increases linearly in width with magnetic field. Rotating the magnetic field clearly attributes this experimental signature to SOI and by comparing our observations with a numerical model we extract a spin-orbit energy of approximately 6.5 meV, which is stronger than the spin-orbit energy obtained by other methods.
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