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arXiv · 2303.00214

Gate-tunable negative differential conductance in hybrid semiconductor-superconductor devices

Mingli Liu·Dong Pan·Tian Le·Jiangbo He·Zhongmou Jia·Shang Zhu·Guang Yang·Zhaozheng Lyu·Guangtong Liu·Jie Shen·Jianhua Zhao·Li Lu·Fanming Qu
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Abstract

Negative differential conductance (NDC) manifests as a significant characteristic of various underlying physics and transport processes in hybrid superconducting devices. In this work, we report the observation of gate-tunable NDC outside the superconducting energy gap on two types of hybrid semiconductor-superconductor devices, i.e., normal metal-superconducting nanowire-normal metal and normal metal-superconducting nanowire-superconductor devices. Specifically, we study the dependence of the NDCs on back-gate voltage and magnetic field. When the back-gate voltage decreases, these NDCs weaken and evolve into positive differential conductance dips; and meanwhile they move away from the superconducting gap towards high bias voltage, and disappear eventually. In addition, with the increase of magnetic field, the NDCs/dips follow the evolution of the superconducting gap, and disappear when the gap closes. We interpret these observations and reach a good agreement by combining the Blonder-Tinkham-Klapwijk (BTK) model and the critical supercurrent effect in the nanowire, which we call the BTK-supercurrent model. Our results provide an in-depth understanding of the tunneling transport in hybrid semiconductor-superconductor devices.

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Mingli Liu, Dong Pan, Tian Le, Jiangbo He, Zhongmou Jia, Shang Zhu, Guang Yang, Zhaozheng Lyu, Guangtong Liu, Jie Shen, Jianhua Zhao, Li Lu, Fanming Qu. 2023-03-01. Gate-tunable negative differential conductance in hybrid semiconductor-superconductor devices. https://doi.org/10.1088/0256-307x%2F40%2F6%2F067301

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