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We investigated the properties of gadolinium scandate (GdScO3) as a gate dielectric for top-gate electrodes on undoped InAs nanowires. It is demonstrated that due to the high dielectric constant of GdScO3 ( k=22), a better control of the conductance of the nanowire is achieved compared to a reference SiO2-isolated back-gate electrode. We analyzed the output and transfer characteristics of top-gate-controlled InAs wires at room temperature and at temperatures down to 4 K. Owing to the good coverage of the InAs nanowire by the 50-nm-thick GdScO3 layer, which was deposited by pulsed-laser deposition, the gate leakage current is sufficiently suppressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An overview is given on the Rashba effect in GaxIn1-xAs/InP quantum wires. First, the effect of Rashba spin–orbit coupling on the energy level spectrum of quantum wires with different shapes of the confining potential is theoretically investigated. The wave functions as well as the spin densities in the quantum wire are analyzed for different magnetic fields. It is found that, owing to the additional geometrical confinement, a modification of the characteristic beating pattern in the magnetoresistance can be expected. The theoretical findings are compared to measurements on two different types of wires: First, single wires and, second, sets of parallel wires. A characteristic beating pattern in the Shubnikov–de Haas oscillations is observed for wires with an effective width down to approximately 400 nm. The beating pattern is significantly better resolved for the samples with sets of parallel wires, owing to the effective suppression of conductance fluctuations. A comparison with theoretical simulations confirms that the strength of the Rashba effect is basically not affected by the geometrical confinement of the wires. However, for wires with a very small effective width the strong carrier confinement leads to a suppression of the characteristic beating pattern in the Shubnikov–de Haas oscillations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hybrid superconductor/2D electron gas (S/2DEG) structures based on InGaAs-InP hetero-junctions with a high-mobility 2D electron gas and superconducting NbN electrodes have been investigated. The electronic transport and current-voltage characteristics of S/2DEG/normal metal (S/2DEG/N) structures in strong perpendicular magnetic fields have been studied. Oscillations in the magnetoresistance of S/2DEG/N structures have been found in strong magnetic fields. It is shown that at bias voltages lower than the superconducting gap the amplitude of oscillations in S/2DEG/N structures significantly exceeds the oscillation amplitude in the reference N/2DEG/N samples. The experimental results can be explained within the quasiclassical theory of magnetotransport in S/2DEG structures developed by N.M. Chtchelkatchev and I.S. Burmistrov ( Phys. Rev. B, 2007, vol. 75, 214 510). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spin-orbit scattering in a polarization-doped Al0.30Ga0.70N/GaN two-dimensional electron gas with one occupied subband is studied at low temperatures. At low magnetic fields weak antilocalization is observed, which proves that spin-orbit scattering occurs in the two-dimensional electron gas. From measurements at various temperatures the elastic scattering time τtr, the dephasing time τ[lowercase_phi_synonym], and the spin-orbit scattering time τso are extracted. Measurements in tilted magnetic fields were performed, in order to separate spin and orbital effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on the fabrication and measurements of planar mesoscopic Josephson junctions formed by InAs nanowires coupled to superconducting Nb terminals. The use of Si-doped InAs-nanowires with different bulk carrier concentrations allowed to tune the properties of the junctions. We have studied the junction characteristics as a function of temperature, gate voltage, and magnetic field. For junctions with high doping concentrations in the nanowire, Josephson supercurrent values up to 100 nA are found. Owing to the use of Nb as superconductor, the Josephson coupling persists at temperatures up to 4 K. In all junctions, the critical current monotonously decreased with the magnetic field, which can be explained by a recently developed theoretical model for the proximity effect in ultra-small Josephson junctions. For the low-doped Josephson junctions, a control of the critical current by varying the gate voltage has been demonstrated. We have studied conductance fluctuations in nanowires coupled to superconducting and normal metal terminals. The conductance fluctuation amplitude is found to be about 6 times larger in superconducting contacted nanowires. The enhancement of the conductance fluctuations is attributed to phase-coherent Andreev reflection as well as to the large number of phase-coherent channels due to the large superconducting gap of the Nb electrodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]