Kondo-enhanced Andreev tunneling in InAs nanowire quantum dots

Phys Rev Lett. 2007 Sep 21;99(12):126603. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.126603. Epub 2007 Sep 19.

Abstract

We report measurements of the nonlinear conductance of InAs nanowire quantum dots coupled to superconducting leads. We observe a clear alternation between odd and even occupation of the dot, with subgap peaks at |V(sd)| = Delta/e markedly stronger (weaker) than the quasiparticle tunneling peaks at |V(sd)| = 2Delta/e for odd (even) occupation. We attribute the enhanced Delta peak to an interplay between Kondo correlations and Andreev tunneling in dots with an odd number of spins, and we substantiate this interpretation by a poor man's scaling analysis.