Enhanced superconductivity in PbTe-In hybrids
We report the realization of epitaxial indium thin films on PbTe nanowires. The film is continuous and forms an atomically sharp interface with PbTe. Tunneling devices reveal a hard superconducting gap. The gap size, 1.08--1.18 meV, is twice as large as bulk indium's $(\ensuremath{\sim}0.5 \mathrm{meV})$, due to the presence of PbTe. A similar enhancement is also observed in the critical temperature of In on a PbTe substrate. Subgap peaks appear at finite magnetic fields. The effective $g$ factor (15--45) is notably enhanced compared to bare PbTe wires $(<10)$ due to the presence of In, differing from Al hybrids. Josephson devices exhibit gate-tunable supercurrents. The PbTe-In hybrid enhances the properties of both the superconductivity of In and $g$ factors of PbTe, and thus may enable exotic phases of matter such as topological superconductivity.
Authors
- Shuai Yang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6089-7628)
- Zuhan Geng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-8773-4119)
- Zehao Yu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0080-0166)
- Yunyi Zang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1047-4889)
- Runan Shang
- Feng Xiao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0921-2467)
- Hao Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1734-6051)
- Fangting Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-8654-2007)
- Ke He (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6787-3453)
- Shan Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1838-6058)
- Yuhao Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2943-434X)
- Tiantian Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9684-574X)
- Qi-Kun Xue (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4129-1284)
- Wenyu Song (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1456-9818)
- Zhaoyu Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8453-643X)
- Ruidong Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0199-9069)
- Zonglin Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4599-4112)
- Lining Yang
- Lin Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5533-0723)
- Yichun Gao
- Jiaye Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-3336-5776)
Institutions
- Southern University of Science and Technology (CN)
- Hefei University (CN)
- Beijing Academy of Quantum Information Sciences (CN)
- Tsinghua University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physical Review Materials
- Published
- 2025-08-25
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/8czc-tn4z
- Primary Topic
- Topological Materials and Phenomena
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China