Nanowire Setup with Short and Long Exposed Junction (IMAGE)
Caption
The nanowire is suspended between two metal conductors (purple). The superconductor made of aluminium (blue) covers part of it leaving a gap of exposed inner wire made of indium and arsenic (orange). In the setup with the small junction, the scientists expected to see the separated "half-electrons" in the exposed superconductor -- illustrated by portraits of Ettore Majorana, the Italian physicists for whom they were named. But they did not find anything. In the setup with the big junction, the exposed core of the wire formed a quantum dot and its electrons interacted with the electrons in the superconductor coating forming the mimicking signal.
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IST Austria
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