Quantum computation by non-Abelian Majorana zero modes (MZMs) offers an approach to achieve fault tolerance by encoding quantum information in the non-local charge parity states of semiconductor nanowire networks in the topological superconductor regime. Thus far, experimental studies of MZMs chiefly relied on single electron tunneling measurements, which lead to the decoherence of the quantum information stored in the MZM. As a next step towards topological quantum computation, charge parity conserving experiments based on the Josephson effect are required, which can also help exclude suggested non-topological origins of the zero bias conductance anomaly. Here we report the direct measurement of the Josephson radiation frequency in indium arsenide nanowires with epitaxial aluminium shells. We observe the 4π-periodic Josephson effect above a magnetic field of ≈200 mT, consistent with the estimated and measured topological phase transition of similar devices.

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Materials possessing superconducting properties are highly sought after due to their potential technological applications. Much of the work has focused on utilising a thin insulating barrier separating a pair of superconducting electrodes, a Josephson junction, as a workhorse in the field of superconducting based quantumcomputation. Yet such structures are highly sensitive to their surrounding environment. Furthermore the associated energy scales, Josephson coupling and charging energy, are set by the junction geometry. Replacing the insulating barrier with a semiconducting material has the significant advantage of offering tunable energy scales with the aid of an applied electric field. Due to recent advancement in material development, hybrid combinations of superconductors and semiconductors have made it possible to devise various architectures. The present thesis focuses on investigating Josephson junctions and Cooper-pair transistors formed from semiconducting nanowires covered by a superconducting layer. @en

The Cooper-pair transistor (CPT), a small superconducting island enclosed between two Josephson weak links, is the atomic building block of various superconducting quantum circuits. Utilizing gate-tunable semiconductor channels as weak links, the energy scale associated with the Josephson tunneling can be changed with respect to the charging energy of the island, tuning the extent of its charge fluctuations. Here, we directly demonstrate this control by mapping the energy level structure of a CPT made of an indium arsenide nanowire with a superconducting aluminum shell. We extract the device parameters based on the exhaustive modeling of the quantum dynamics of the phase-biased nanowire CPT and directly measure the even-odd parity occupation ratio as a function of the device temperature, relevant for superconducting and prospective topological qubits.

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Parity control of superconducting islands hosting Majorana zero modes (MZMs) is required to operate topological qubits made from proximitized semiconductor nanowires. We test this control by studying parity effects in hybrid InAs-Al single-Cooper-pair transistors (SCPTs) to evaluate the feasibility of this material system. In particular, we investigate the gate-charge modulation of the supercurrent and observe a consistent 2e-periodic pattern indicating a general lack of low-energy subgap states in these nanowires at zero magnetic field. In a parallel magnetic field, an even-odd pattern develops with a gate-charge spacing that oscillates as a function of field demonstrating that the modulation pattern is sensitive to the presence of a single bound state. In addition, we find that the parity lifetime of the SCPT decreases exponentially with magnetic field as the bound state approaches zero energy. Our work shows that aluminum is the preferred superconductor for future topological qubit experiments and highlights the important role that quasiparticle traps and superconducting gap engineering would play in these qubits. Moreover, we demonstrate a means by which bound states can be detected in devices with superconducting leads.

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We measured the Josephson radiation emitted by an InSb semiconductor nanowire junction utilizing photon-assisted quasiparticle tunneling in an ac-coupled superconducting tunnel junction. We quantify the action of the local microwave environment by evaluating the frequency dependence of the inelastic Cooper-pair tunneling of the nanowire junction and find the zero-frequency impedance Z(0)=492Ω with a cutoff frequency of f0=33.1GHz. We extract a circuit coupling efficiency of η≈0.1 and a detector quantum efficiency approaching unity in the high-frequency limit. In addition to the Josephson radiation, we identify a shot noise contribution with a Fano factor F≈1, consistently with the presence of single electron states in the nanowire channel.

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The superconducting proximity effect in semiconductor nanowires has recently enabled the study of new superconducting architectures, such as gate-tunable superconducting qubits and multiterminal Josephson junctions. As opposed to their metallic counterparts, the electron density in semiconductor nanosystems is tunable by external electrostatic gates, providing a highly scalable and in situ variation of the device properties. In addition, semiconductors with large g-factor and spin-orbit coupling have been shown to give rise to exotic phenomena in superconductivity, such as † 0 Josephson junctions and the emergence of Majorana bound states. Here, we report microwave spectroscopy measurements that directly reveal the presence of Andreev bound states (ABS) in ballistic semiconductor channels. We show that the measured ABS spectra are the result of transport channels with gate-tunable, high transmission probabilities up to 0.9, which is required for gate-tunable Andreev qubits and beneficial for braiding schemes of Majorana states. For the first time, we detect excitations of a spin-split pair of ABS and observe symmetry-broken ABS, a direct consequence of the spin-orbit coupling in the semiconductor.

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