Measurements of cyclotron resonance of the interfacial states in strong spin–orbit coupled 2D electron gases proximitized with aluminum

Abstract

Two dimensional electron gases (2DEGs) in InAs quantum wells proximitized by aluminum are promising platforms for topological qubits based on Majorana zero modes. However, there are still substantial uncertainties associated with the nature of electronic states at the interface of these systems. It is challenging to probe the properties of these hybridized states as they are buried under a relatively thick aluminum layer. In this work, we have investigated a range of InAs/In1−xGaxAs heterostructures with Al overlayers using high precision time-domain THz spectroscopy (TDTS). Despite the thick metallic overlayer, we observe a prominent cyclotron resonance in a magnetic field that can be associated with the response of the interfacial states. Measurements of the THz range complex Faraday rotation allow the extraction of the sign and magnitude of the effective mass, density of charge carriers, and scattering times of the 2DEG despite the close proximity of the aluminum layer. We discuss the extracted band parameters and connect their values to the known physics of these materials.