A two-site Kitaev chain in a two-dimensional electron gas

Artificial Kitaev chains can be used to engineer Majorana bound states (MBSs) in superconductor–semiconductor hybrids 1 – 4 . In this work, we realize a two-site Kitaev chain in a two-dimensional electron gas by coupling two quantum dots through a region proximitized by a superconductor. We demonstr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature (London) 2024-06, Vol.630 (8016), p.329-334
Main Authors: ten Haaf, Sebastiaan L. D., Wang, Qingzhen, Bozkurt, A. Mert, Liu, Chun-Xiao, Kulesh, Ivan, Kim, Philip, Xiao, Di, Thomas, Candice, Manfra, Michael J., Dvir, Tom, Wimmer, Michael, Goswami, Srijit
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
639/766/119/1000/1017
639/766/119/1000/1018
639/766/119/1003
639/925/927/1064
Couplings
Electron gas
Electrons
Electrostatic properties
Energy
Energy spectra
Humanities and Social Sciences
Hybridization
Magnetic fields
multidisciplinary
Parameter robustness
Parity
Quantum dots
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Spectroscopy
Spectrum analysis
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Summary:Artificial Kitaev chains can be used to engineer Majorana bound states (MBSs) in superconductor–semiconductor hybrids 1 – 4 . In this work, we realize a two-site Kitaev chain in a two-dimensional electron gas by coupling two quantum dots through a region proximitized by a superconductor. We demonstrate systematic control over inter-dot couplings through in-plane rotations of the magnetic field and via electrostatic gating of the proximitized region. This allows us to tune the system to sweet spots in parameter space, where robust correlated zero-bias conductance peaks are observed in tunnelling spectroscopy. To study the extent of hybridization between localized MBSs, we probe the evolution of the energy spectrum with magnetic field and estimate the Majorana polarization, an important metric for Majorana-based qubits 5 , 6 . The implementation of a Kitaev chain on a scalable and flexible two-dimensional platform provides a realistic path towards more advanced experiments that require manipulation and readout of multiple MBSs. We have implemented a two-site Kitaev chain in a two-dimensional electron gas by coupling quantum dots through Andreev bound states in a superconductor–semiconductor hybrid region.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/s41586-024-07434-9