Spectroscopic Visualization of a Robust Electronic Response of Semiconducting Nanowires to Deposition of Superconducting Islands

TL;DR

This study uses spectroscopic mapping to reveal the robust electronic response of semiconducting nanowires with superconducting islands, highlighting surface states' role in maintaining chemical potential and interface properties crucial for topological superconductivity.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the electronic structure and interface properties of InAs nanowires with epitaxial aluminum islands, emphasizing the resilience of the nanowires due to surface states.

Findings

Surface states pin the Fermi level, preventing band bending.

Aluminum islands exhibit Coulomb blockade, indicating a tunneling barrier.

A potential energy barrier suppresses transmittance at the interface.

Abstract

Following significant progress in the visualization and characterization of Majorana end modes in hybrid systems of semiconducting nanowires and superconducting islands, much attention is devoted to the investigation of the electronic structure at the buried interface between the semiconductor and the superconductor. The properties of that interface and the structure of the electronic wavefunctions that occupy it determine the functionality and the topological nature of the superconducting state induced therein. Here we study this buried interface by performing spectroscopic mappings of superconducting aluminum islands epitaxially grown in-situ on indium arsenide nanowires. We find unexpected robustness of the hybrid system as the direct contact with the aluminum islands does not lead to any change in the chemical potential of the nanowires, nor does it induce a significant band bending in their vicinity. We attribute this to the presence of surface states bound to the facets of the nanowire. Such surface states, that are present also in bare nanowires prior to aluminum deposition, pin the Fermi-level thus rendering the nanowires resilient to surface perturbations. The aluminum islands further display Coulomb blockade gaps and peaks that signify the formation of a resistive tunneling barrier at the InAs-Al interface. At low energies we identify a potential energy barrier that further suppresses the transmittance through the interface. A corresponding barrier exists in bare semiconductors between surface states and the accumulation layer, induced to maintain charge neutrality. Our observations elucidate the delicate interplay between the resistive nature of the InAs-Al interface and the ability to proximitize superconductivity and tune the chemical potential in semiconductor-superconductor hybrid nanowires.