{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/78336"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/78336","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"The superconducting proximity effect in Bi2Se3 thin-films","abstract":"States of matter distinguished by the topology of their bands rather than any broken symmetry represent a vast, largely unexplored realm of condensed matter physics. Such states, realized in condensed matter systems, support exotic excitations that obey rules distinct from fermions and bosons. They are of basic interest, illustrating Nature’s limitless creativity, and practical in-terest in that they may prove ideal platforms for the construction of error-proof quantum com-putational devices. In this work, the topological insulator Bi2Se3, which supports special metallic surface states as a consequence of the topology of its bulk bands, is tiled with micron-scale islands of the superconductor niobium. The superconducting islands interact with the Bi2Se3 and each other through the superconducting proximity effect and the Josephson effect. Theoretical work asserts that this system supports so-called Majorana bound states, which are exotic excitations that possess some of the features necessary to construct a topologically protected quantum bit. Transport studies on these topological Josephson array devices show that the presence of the islands leads to correlated transport and vortex dynamics in the topological insulator wire. These devices may serve as an ideal platform for further investigation into Majorana physics and other manifestations of the topological nature of the Bi2Se3 wires.","abstract_html":"States of matter distinguished by the topology of their bands rather than any broken symmetry represent a vast, largely unexplored realm of condensed matter physics. Such states, realized in condensed matter systems, support exotic excitations that obey rules distinct from fermions and bosons. They are of basic interest, illustrating Nature’s limitless creativity, and practical in-terest in that they may prove ideal platforms for the construction of error-proof quantum com-putational devices. In this work, the topological insulator Bi2Se3, which supports special metallic surface states as a consequence of the topology of its bulk bands, is tiled with micron-scale islands of the superconductor niobium. The superconducting islands interact with the Bi2Se3 and each other through the superconducting proximity effect and the Josephson effect. Theoretical work asserts that this system supports so-called Majorana bound states, which are exotic excitations that possess some of the features necessary to construct a topologically protected quantum bit. Transport studies on these topological Josephson array devices show that the presence of the islands leads to correlated transport and vortex dynamics in the topological insulator wire. These devices may serve as an ideal platform for further investigation into Majorana physics and other manifestations of the topological nature of the Bi2Se3 wires.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Mulcahy, Brian T"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Physics","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Eckstein, James N.","MacDougall, Gregory","Thaler, Jon","Hughes, Taylor"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2015,"date_issued":"2015-07-22T22:16:14Z","date_published":"2015-07-22T22:16:14Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:26:11Z","subjects":["Bismuth selenide (Bi2Se3)","Topological insulator","Molecular beam epitaxy","Josephson junction","Josephson junction array","Majorana fermion","Transport"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright 2015 Brian T. Mulcahy"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/78336","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Eckstein, James N.","MacDougall, Gregory","Thaler, Jon","Hughes, Taylor"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Mulcahy, Brian T"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2015-07-22T22:16:14Z","2015-05","2015-03-19","2015-5"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Physics"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Bismuth selenide (Bi2Se3)","Topological insulator","Molecular beam epitaxy","Josephson junction","Josephson junction array","Majorana fermion","Transport"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2015 Brian T. 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The superconducting islands interact with the Bi2Se3 and each other through the superconducting proximity effect and the Josephson effect. Theoretical work asserts that this system supports so-called Majorana bound states, which are exotic excitations that possess some of the features necessary to construct a topologically protected quantum bit. Transport studies on these topological Josephson array devices show that the presence of the islands leads to correlated transport and vortex dynamics in the topological insulator wire. These devices may serve as an ideal platform for further investigation into Majorana physics and other manifestations of the topological nature of the Bi2Se3 wires.","Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. 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They are of basic interest, illustrating Nature’s limitless creativity, and practical in-terest in that they may prove ideal platforms for the construction of error-proof quantum com-putational devices. In this work, the topological insulator Bi2Se3, which supports special metallic surface states as a consequence of the topology of its bulk bands, is tiled with micron-scale islands of the superconductor niobium. The superconducting islands interact with the Bi2Se3 and each other through the superconducting proximity effect and the Josephson effect. Theoretical work asserts that this system supports so-called Majorana bound states, which are exotic excitations that possess some of the features necessary to construct a topologically protected quantum bit. Transport studies on these topological Josephson array devices show that the presence of the islands leads to correlated transport and vortex dynamics in the topological insulator wire. These devices may serve as an ideal platform for further investigation into Majorana physics and other manifestations of the topological nature of the Bi2Se3 wires.","Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2015-07-22 without embargo terms","The student, Brian Mulcahy, accepted the attached license on 2015-03-18 at 11:56.","The student, Brian Mulcahy, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2015-03-18 at 12:10.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2015-03-19 at 14:54.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #7759 on 2015-07-22 at 10:30:45","Made available in DSpace on 2015-07-22T22:16:14Z (GMT). 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