Helical Hole State in Multiple Conduction Modes in Ge/Si Core/Shell Nanowire

Helical states, a prerequisite for the engineering of Majorana zero modes in solid-state systems, have recently been reported in the conduction band of III–V nanowires (NWs) subject to strong Rashba spin–orbit interaction. We report the observation of re-entrant conductance features consistent with the presence of helical hole states in multiple conduction modes of a Ge/Si core/shell NW. The Ge/Si system has several potential advantages over electron systems such as longer spin coherence time due to weaker coupling to nuclear spins and the possibility of isotope-purified materials for nuclear spin-free devices. We derive the Landé g factor of 3.6 from magneto-transport measurements, comparable to theoretical predictions and significantly larger when compared with that in strongly confined quantum dots. The spin–orbit energy is evaluated as ∼2.1 meV, on par with values in III–V NWs, showing good agreement with previous theoretical predictions and weak antilocalization measurements.