Optimization of In-Situ Growth of Superconducting Al/InAs Hybrid Systems on GaAs for the Development of Quantum Electronic Circuits

Hybrid systems consisting of highly transparent channels of low-dimensional semiconductors between superconducting elements allow the formation of quantum electronic circuits. Therefore, they are among the novel material platforms that could pave the way for scalable quantum computation. To this aim, InAs two-dimensional electron gases are among the ideal semiconductor systems due to their vanishing Schottky barrier; however, their exploitation is limited by the unavailability of commercial lattice-matched substrates. We show that in situ growth of superconducting aluminum on two-dimensional electron gases forming in metamorphic near-surface InAs quantum wells can be performed by molecular beam epitaxy on GaAs substrates with state-of-the-art quality. Adaptation of the metamorphic growth protocol has allowed us to reach low-temperature electron mobilities up to 1.3 × 105 cm2/Vs in Si-doped InAs/In0.81Ga0.19As two-dimensional electron gases placed 10 nm from the surface with charge density up to 1 × 1012/cm2. Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations on Hall bar structures show well-developed quantum Hall plateaus, including the Zeeman split features. X-ray diffraction and cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy experiments demonstrate the coexistence of (011) and (111) crystal domains in the Al layers. The resistivity of 10-nm-thick Al films as a function of temperature was comparable to the best Al layers on GaAs, and a superconducting proximity effect was observed in a Josephson junction.