TY  - JOUR
AU  - Heedt, Sebastian
AU  - Schäpers, Thomas
AU  - Traverso Ziani, N.
AU  - Crepin, F.
AU  - Prost, W.
AU  - Trellenkamp, Stefan
AU  - Schubert, Jürgen
AU  - Grützmacher, Detlev
AU  - Trauzettel, B.
TI  - Signatures of interaction-induced helical gaps in nanowire quantum point contacts
JO  - Nature physics
VL  - 13
SN  - 1745-2473
CY  - Basingstoke
PB  - Nature Publishing Group
M1  - FZJ-2017-01461
SP  - 563–567
PY  - 2017
AB  - Spin–momentum locking in a semiconductor device with strong spin–orbit coupling (SOC) is thought to be an important prerequisite for the formation of Majorana bound states1, 2, 3. Such a helical state is predicted in one-dimensional (1D) nanowires subject to strong Rashba SOC and spin-mixing4—its hallmark being a characteristic re-entrant behaviour in the conductance. Here, we report direct experimental observations of the re-entrant conductance feature, which reveals the formation of a helical liquid, in the lowest 1D subband of an InAs nanowire. Surprisingly, the feature is very prominent also in the absence of magnetic fields. This behaviour suggests that exchange interactions have a substantial impact on transport in our device. We attribute the opening of the pseudogap to spin-flipping two-particle backscattering5, 6, 7. The all-electric origin of the ideal helical transport could have important implications for topological quantum computing.
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
UR  - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000402604200016
DO  - DOI:10.1038/nphys4070
UR  - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/827267
ER  -