TY - JOUR
T1 - Andreev reflection and bound state formation in a ballistic two-dimensional electron gas probed by a quantum point contact
AU - Irie, Hiroshi
AU - Todt, Clemens
AU - Kumada, Norio
AU - Harada, Yuichi
AU - Sugiyama, Hiroki
AU - Akazaki, Tatsushi
AU - Muraki, Koji
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI (Grants No. JP22103002 and No. JP15H05854).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 American Physical Society.
PY - 2016/10/12
Y1 - 2016/10/12
N2 - We study coherent transport and bound state formation of Bogoliubov quasiparticles in a high-mobility In0.75Ga0.25As two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) coupled to a superconducting Nb electrode by means of a quantum point contact (QPC) as a tunable single-mode probe. Below the superconducting critical temperature of Nb, the QPC shows a single-channel conductance greater than the conductance quantum 2e2/h at zero bias, which indicates the presence of Andreev-reflected quasiparticles, time-reversed states of the injected electron, returning back through the QPC. The marked sensitivity of the conductance enhancement to voltage bias and perpendicular magnetic field suggests a mechanism analogous to reflectionless tunneling - a hallmark of phase-coherent transport, with the boundary of the 2DEG cavity playing the role of scatterers. When the QPC transmission is reduced to the tunneling regime, the differential conductance vs bias voltage probes the single-particle density of states in the proximity area. Measured conductance spectra show a double peak within the superconducting gap of Nb, demonstrating the formation of Andreev bound states in the 2DEG. Both of these results, obtained in the open and closed geometries, underpin the coherent nature of quasiparticles, i.e., phase-coherent Andreev reflection at the InGaAs/Nb interface and coherent propagation in the ballistic 2DEG.
AB - We study coherent transport and bound state formation of Bogoliubov quasiparticles in a high-mobility In0.75Ga0.25As two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) coupled to a superconducting Nb electrode by means of a quantum point contact (QPC) as a tunable single-mode probe. Below the superconducting critical temperature of Nb, the QPC shows a single-channel conductance greater than the conductance quantum 2e2/h at zero bias, which indicates the presence of Andreev-reflected quasiparticles, time-reversed states of the injected electron, returning back through the QPC. The marked sensitivity of the conductance enhancement to voltage bias and perpendicular magnetic field suggests a mechanism analogous to reflectionless tunneling - a hallmark of phase-coherent transport, with the boundary of the 2DEG cavity playing the role of scatterers. When the QPC transmission is reduced to the tunneling regime, the differential conductance vs bias voltage probes the single-particle density of states in the proximity area. Measured conductance spectra show a double peak within the superconducting gap of Nb, demonstrating the formation of Andreev bound states in the 2DEG. Both of these results, obtained in the open and closed geometries, underpin the coherent nature of quasiparticles, i.e., phase-coherent Andreev reflection at the InGaAs/Nb interface and coherent propagation in the ballistic 2DEG.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84992161428&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84992161428&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevB.94.155305
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevB.94.155305
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84992161428
VL - 94
JO - Physical Review B
JF - Physical Review B
SN - 2469-9950
IS - 15
M1 - 155305
ER -