Enhancing Superconductivity in Indium Arsenide Quantum Well Heterostructures*

Hybrid superconductor-semiconductor heterostructures containing indium arsenide quantum wells combine strong spin-orbit effects, s-wave superconductivity, and arbitrary lithographic confinement. This platform facilitates both study of induced superconductivity in the quantum well and topological states in quasi-one-dimensional systems. While epitaxial aluminum provides transparent contact to the quantum well, aluminum cannot sustain large magnetic fields (>1 T) required to explore many topological effects. Further, the small (150 µeV) superconducting gap of aluminum can complicate detection and inhibit manipulation of states required for applications to topological quantum computing. In this work, we present a method of coupling niobium-based superconductors to indium arsenide quantum wells to supplement the critical magnetic field and superconducting gap in this platform. Experimental progress on fabrication of superconductor-semiconductor-superconductor (SNS) junctions and quantum point contacts will be presented.