Selective Area Growth of PbTe Nanowire Networks on InP

Hybrid semiconductor–superconductor nanowires are promising candidates as quantum information processing devices. The need for scalability and complex designs calls for the development of selective area growth techniques. Here, the growth of large scale lead telluride (PbTe) networks is introduced by molecular beam epitaxy. The group IV-VI lead-salt semiconductor is an attractive material choice due to its large dielectric constant, strong spin-orbit coupling, and high carrier mobility. A crystal re-orientation process during the initial growth stages leads to single crystalline nanowire networks despite a large lattice mismatch, different crystal structure, and diverging thermal expansion coefficient to the indium phosphide (InP) substrate. The high quality of the resulting material is confirmed by Hall bar measurements, indicating mobilities up to 5600 cm² (Vs)⁻¹, and Aharonov–Bohm experiments, indicating a low-temperature phase coherence length exceeding 21 µm. Together, these properties show the high potential of the system as a basis for topological networks.