Conductance quantization in PbTe nanowires

PbTe nanowires coupled to a superconductor have recently been proposed as a potential Majorana platform. The hallmark of the one-dimensional nature of ballistic nanowires is their quantized conductance. Here, we report the observation of conductance plateaus at multiples of the quantized value 2e(2)/h in PbTe nanowires at finite magnetic fields. The quantized plateaus, as a function of source-drain bias and magnetic field, allow for the extraction of the Lande g factor, sub-band spacing, and effective mass. The coefficient of 2 in the plateau conductance indicates the presence of valley degeneracy arising from the crystal orientation of the nanowires, which are grown on a (001) substrate. Occasionally, this degeneracy can be lifted by a gate voltage that breaks the mirror symmetry. Our results demonstrate the one dimensionality of PbTe nanowires and fulfill one of the necessary conditions for the realization of Majorana zero modes.