Epitaxial aluminum contacts to InAs nanowires

Understand

We report a method for making epitaxial superconducting contacts to semiconducting nanowires.

• The temperature and gate characteristics demonstrate barrier-free electrical contact, and the properties in the superconducting state are investigated at low temperature.
• Half-covering aluminum contacts are realized without the need of lithography and we demonstrate how to controllably insert high-band gap layers in the interface region.
• These developments are relevant to hybrid superconductor-nanowire devices that support Majorana zero energy states.