Reducing Disorder in PbTe Nanowires for Majorana Research

作者：Wenyu Song, Zehao Yu, Yuhao Wang, Yichun Gao, Zonglin Li, Shuai Yang, Shan Zhang, Zuhan Geng, Ruidong Li, Zhaoyu Wang, Fangting Chen, Lining Yang, Wentao Miao, Jiaye Xu, Xiao Feng, Tiantian Wang, Yunyi Zang, Lin Li, Runan Shang, Qi-Kun Xue, Ke He, Hao Zhang · 发表于：Nano Letters · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1021/acs.nanolett.4c05708 · 被引用次数：6 · 研究领域：Topological Materials and Phenomena、Quantum many-body systems、2D Materials and Applications

Material challenges are the key issue in Majorana research, where surface disorder constrains device performance. Here, we tackle this challenge by embedding PbTe nanowires within a lattice-constant-matched crystal. The wire edges are shaped by self-organized growth instead of lithography, resulting in nearly atomically flat facets along both cross-sectional and longitudinal directions. Quantized conductance is observed at zero magnetic field with channel lengths maximally reaching 1.7 μm, significantly surpassing the state-of-the-art III-V nanowires (an order-of-magnitude improvement compared to InSb). Coupling PbTe to a Pb film unveils a flat interface spanning micrometers and a large superconducting gap of 1 meV. Our result not only represents a stride toward meeting the stringent low-disorder requirement for Majoranas, but may also open the door to various hybrid quantum devices requiring a low level of disorder.