Zero-bias anomaly in a nanowire quantum dot coupled to superconductors

• Published in: Physical review letters 2012-10, Vol.109 (18), p.186802-186802, Article 186802
• Main Authors: Lee, Eduardo J H, Jiang, Xiaocheng, Aguado, Ramón, Katsaros, Georgios, Lieber, Charles M, De Franceschi, Silvano
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0031-9007; 1079-7114
• DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.109.186802

We studied the low-energy states of spin-1/2 quantum dots defined in InAs/InP nanowires and coupled to aluminum superconducting leads. By varying the superconducting gap Δ with a magnetic field B we investigated the transition from strong coupling Δ > T(K), where T(K) is the Kondo temperature. Below the critical field, we observe a persisting zero-bias Kondo resonance that vanishes only for low B or higher temperatures, leaving the room to more robust subgap structures at bias voltages between Δ and 2Δ. For strong and approximately symmetric tunnel couplings, a Josephson supercurrent is observed in addition to the Kondo peak. We ascribe the coexistence of a Kondo resonance and a superconducting gap to a significant density of intragap quasiparticle states, and the finite-bias subgap structures to tunneling through Shiba states. Our results, supported by numerical calculations, own relevance also in relation to tunnel-spectroscopy experiments aiming at the observation of Majorana fermions in hybrid nanostructures.