JP-2022517277-A5 -

Dates

Publication Date

20221206

Application Date

20200104

Description

In one embodiment, the layer of superconducting material may be coated using a particle beam. A method for operating the device may be provided according to another embodiment disclosed herein. The method comprises inducing at least one Majorana zero-mode MZM in one or more nanowires of the nanowire network, the at least one MZM being induced by cooling the superconductor to its superconducting temperature and applying a magnetic field to the device. The induction of at least one MZM may further include the step of gate-controlling at least one of the one or more nanowires with an electrostatic potential. Current approaches to synthesizing semiconductor superconducting materials for superconducting nanowire electronics are based on either two-dimensional planar materials (see, e.g., Shabani et al., PRB 93, 155402 (2016)) or bottom-up grown nanowire materials (see, e.g., Krogstrup et al., Nature Mater. 14, 400–406 (2015)). Both approaches face scalability challenges for different reasons. An exemplary three-step fabrication method is described with reference to Figures 1, 5, and 5A. This manufacturing method can be used to fabricate networks of semiconductor (SE) and/or semiconductor/superconductor (SE/SU) nanowires, which can form the basis for quantum devices or circuits (e.g., quantum computers) or other semiconductor/superconductor mixed platforms. In particular, this method is especially suitable for fabricating SE/SU nanowire networks that can host stable MZMs that can form the basis for fault-free topological quantum computing. Here, SE/SU nanowires refer to semiconductor wires coated with a superconductor . In the semiconductor growth process, several types of semiconductor materials can be grown to form a stack (heterostructure). In an optional third step III (superconductor growth step), one or more layers of superconducting material 112 may be grown on at least a portion of the nanowire network. In some examples, other materials (e.g., dielectrics) can be grown. In the example of Figure 1, the layer of superconducting material is grown using a particle beam 110. Here, superconducting material means a material that exhibits superconducting properties at least under certain conditions. An example of such a material is aluminum. Alternatively, the superconducting material 112 may be niobium (Nb), titanium nitride (TiN), or any other s-wave superconductor. In the following examples, the superconductor is grown epitaxially in step III, and superconductor growth step III can here be called the epitaxial growth step. However, this technology is not limited to this, and the desired results can be achieved by growing non-epitaxial superconductors in the III step. At least a portion of the superconducting layer 112 is deposited on the SE nanowire 108, so that this portion of the superconducting layer 112 (labeled 116 in Figure 1) comes into direct contact with the SE 108 of the nanowire. In other words, the semiconductor 108 of the nanowire is covered at least partially with the superconducting material.