Spin-orbit interaction in ballistic nanowire devices
J. Kammhuber (TU Delft - QRD/Kouwenhoven Lab)
Leo P. Kouwenhoven – Promotor (TU Delft - QRD/Kouwenhoven Lab)
More Info
expand_more
Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.
Abstract
Similar to their charge, electrons also posses an intrinsic magnetic moment called spin. Whenmoving through an electric field, electrons experience and effective magnetic field in their restframe which will interact with the spin and influence its direction. This spinorbit interaction creates a measurable shift in the splitting of atomic energy levels and in the energy bands of solid state systems. Recently it has been proposed that systems with strong spin-orbit interaction can be used to engineer novel topological states of matter which are predicted to host non-abelian quasi particles. These could generate robust quantum states which are protected against decoherence. The research in this thesis focuses on indium antimonide (InSb) nanowires which combine exceptionally strong spin-orbit interaction with large g-factors and high electron mobilities. This makes them one of the most promising systems for realizing topological qubits based on Majorana zero modes (MZM).