Enhanced superconductivity in PbTe-In hybrids

We report the realization of epitaxial indium thin films on PbTe nanowires. The film is continuous and forms an atomically sharp interface with PbTe. Tunneling devices reveal a hard superconducting gap. The gap size, 1.08 to 1.18 meV, is twice as large as bulk indium's ($\sim$ 0.5 meV), due to the presence of PbTe. A similar enhancement is also observed in the critical temperature of In on a PbTe substrate. Subgap peaks appear at finite magnetic fields. The effective $g$-factor (15-45) is notably enhanced compared to bare PbTe wires ($<$ 10) due to the presence of In, differing from Al-hybrids. Josephson devices exhibit gate-tunable supercurrents. The PbTe-In hybrid enhances the properties of both, the superconductivity of In and g-factors of PbTe, and thus may enable exotic phases of matter such as topological superconductivity.