Charge Sensing the Parity of an Andreev Molecule
David van Driel, Bart Roovers, Francesco Zatelli, Alberto Bordin, Guanzhong Wang, Nick van Loo, Jan Cornelis Wolff, Grzegorz P. Mazur, Saša Gazibegović, Ghada Badawy, Erik P. A. M. Bakkers, Leo P. Kouwenhoven, Tom Dvir
Abstract
The proximity effect of superconductivity on confined states in semiconductors gives rise to various bound states such as Andreev bound states, Andreev molecules, and Majorana zero modes. While such bound states do not conserve charge, their fermion parity is a good quantum number. One way to measure parity is to convert it to charge first, which is then sensed. In this work, we sense the charge of Andreev bound states and Andreev molecules in an <a:math xmlns:a="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline" overflow="scroll"><a:mrow><a:mi>In</a:mi><a:mi>Sb</a:mi></a:mrow></a:math>-<d:math xmlns:d="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline" overflow="scroll"><d:mi>Al</d:mi></d:math> hybrid nanowire using an integrated quantum dot operated as a charge sensor. We show how charge sensing measurements can resolve the even and odd states of an Andreev molecule, without affecting the parity. Such an approach can be further used for parity measurements of Majorana zero modes in Kitaev chains based on quantum dots. Published by the American Physical Society 2024