We study Andreev reflection in a normal conductor-molecule-superconductor junction using a first principles approach. In particular, we focus on a family of molecules consisting of a molecular backbone and a weakly coupled side group. We show that the presence of the side group can lead to a Fano resonance in the Andreev reflection. We use a simple theoretical model to explain the results of the numerical calculations and to make predictions about the possible sub-gap resonance structures in the Andreev reflection coefficient.
In this paper, we investigate the transport through a T-shaped double quantum dot coupled to two normal metal leads left and right and a superconducting lead. Analytical expressions of Andreev transmission and local Density of States of the system at zero temperature have been obtained. We study the role of the superconducting lead in the quantum interferometric features of the double quantum dot. We report for first time the Fano effect produced by Andreev bound states in a side quantum dot. Our results show that as a consequence of quantum interference and proximity effect, the transmission …
We report on a new type of Fano effect, named as Andreev-Fano effect, in a hybrid normal-metal / superconductor (N/S) interferometer embedded with a quantum dot. Compared with the conventional Fano effect, Andreev-Fano effect has some new features related to the characteristics of Andreev reflection. In the linear response regime, the line shape is the square of the conventional Fano shape; while in the nonlinear transport, a sharp resonant structure is superposed on an expanded interference pattern, qualitatively different from the conventional Fano effect. The phase dependence of the hybrid …
We study influence of the phonon modes on a subgap spectrum and Andreev conductance for the double quantum dot vertically coupled between a metallic and superconducting lead. For the monochromatic phonon reservoir we obtain replicas of the interferometric Fano-type structures appearing simultaneously in the particle and hole channels. We furthermore confront the induced on-dot pairing with the electron correlations and investigate how the phonon modes affect the zero-bias signature of the Kondo effect in Andreev conductance.
We investigate the Andreev reflection in the parallel double-quantum-dot structure, by considering one metallic lead and one $s$-wave superconductor to couple to the quantum dots simultaneously. It is found that the Fano lineshhape has opportunities to appear in the linear conductance spectrum of the Andreev reflection, which can be reversed by tuning the dot level or local magnetic flux. However, the property of the Fano effect is very complicated, in comparison with the normal electron tunnelling case. This is manifested as the special Fano form of the linear-conductance expression and the i…
In the present work, we investigate the electronic transport through a T-shape double quantum dot system coupled to two normal leads and to one superconducting lead. We explore the interplay between Kondo and Andreev states due to proximity effects. We find that Kondo resonance is modified by the Andreev bound states, which manifest through Fano antiresonances in the local density of states of the embedded quantum dot and normal transmission. This means that there is a correlation between Andreev bound states and Fano resonances that is robust under the influence of high electronic correlation…
We study effects of disorder on the low energy single particle transport in a normal wire surrounded by a superconductor. We show that the heat conductance includes the Andreev diffusion decreasing with increase in the mean free path $\ell $ and the diffusive drift produced by a small particle-hole asymmetry, which increases with increasing $\ell$. The conductance thus has a minimum as a function of $\ell$ which leads to a peculiar re-entrant localization as a function of the mean free path.
We study shot noise in mesoscopic diffusive wires between a normal and a superconducting terminal. We particularly focus on the regime, in which the proximity-induced reentrance effect is important. We will examine the difference between a simple Boltzmann-Langevin description, which neglects induced correlations beyond the simple conductivity correction, and a full quantum calculation. In the latter approach, it turns out that two Andreev pairs propagating coherently into the normal metal are anti-correlated for E<E_c, where E_c=D/L^2 is the Thouless energy. In a fork geometry the flux-sensit…
We study the proximity effect in a topological nanowire tunnel coupled to an s-wave superconducting substrate. We use a general Green's function approach that allows us to study the evolution of the Andreev bound states in the wire into Majorana fermions. We show that the strength of the tunnel coupling induces a topological transition in which the Majorana fermionic states can be destroyed when the coupling is very strong. Moreover, we provide a phenomenologial study of the effects of disorder in the superconductor on the formation of Majorana fermions. We note a non-trivial effect of a quasi…
We theoretically study the crossed Andreev reflection in a hybrid nanostructure which comprises a d-wave superconductor and two normal-metal quantum wires. When the superconductor of the (110) oriented surface is in contact with the wires parallel and placed close to each other, the Andreev bound state is formed by the crossed Andreev reflection. When the contact barrier potential is sufficiently large, two sharp peaks appear in the conductance well below the gap structure, which originate from the bonding and antibonding Andreev bound states. We propose that these Andreev bound states form a …
The crossed Andreev reflection in a hybrid nanostructure consisting of a d-wave superconductor and two quantum wires is theoretically studied. When the (110) oriented surface of the superconductor is in contact with the wires parallel and placed close to each other, the Andreev bound state is formed by the crossed Andreev reflection. The conductance has two resonance peaks well below the gap structure in the case of tunnel contacts. These peaks originate from the bonding and antibonding Andreev bound states of hole wave functions.
Low temperature transport measurements on superconducting film - normal metal wire - superconducting film (SNS) junctions fabricated on the basis of 6 nm thick superconducting polycrystalline PtSi films are reported. The structures with the normal metal wires of two different lengths L=1.5 $μ$m and L=6$μ$m and the same widths W=0.3$μ$m are studied. Zero bias resistance dip related to pair current proximity effect is observed for all junctions whereas the subharmonic energy gap structure originating from phase coherent multiple Andreev reflections have occurs only in the SNS junctions with shor…
We present analytical and numerical results for the electronic spectra of wires of a d-wave superconductor on a square lattice. The spectra of Andreev and other quasiparticle states, as well as the spatial and particle-hole structures of their wave functions, depend on interference effects caused by the presence of the surfaces and are qualitatively different for half-filled wires with even or odd number of chains. For half-filled wires with an odd number of chains N at (110) orientation, spectra consist of N doubly degenerate branches. By contrast, for even N wires, these levels are split, an…
We study Andreev reflection in a ballistic one-dimensional channel coupled in parallel to a superconductor via a tunnel barrier of finite length $L$. The dependence of the low-energy Andreev reflection probability $R_A$ on $L$ reveals the existence of a characteristic length scale $ξ_N$ beyond which $R_A(L)$ is enhanced up to unity despite the low interfacial transparency. The Andreev reflection enhancement is due to the strong mixing of particle and hole states that builds up in contacts exceeding the coherence length $ξ_N$, leading to a small energy gap (minigap) in the density of states of …
We consider theoretically a $1D$-semiconducting wire with strong Rashba interaction in proximity with $s$-wave superconductor, driven into topological phase by external magnetic field. Additionally, we take into account on-site Coulomb interactions inside the wire. The system is modelled by a tight binding Hamiltonian with Rashba hopping term and induced $s$-wave superconductivity. Calculations are performed utilizing recursive Green's function method, and Coulomb interactions are treated selfconsistently within Hubbard $I$ approximation. For the Hubbard levels residing within $p$-wave superco…
The energy-dependent Andreev reflection eigenvalues determine the transport properties of normal-superconducting systems. We evaluate the eigenvalue density to get an insight into formation of resonant electron-hole transport channels. The circuit-theory-like method developed can be applied to any generic mesoscopic conductor or combinations thereof. We present the results for experimentally relevant cases of a diffusive wire and a double tunnel junction.
We analyze the change in the resistance of a junction between a diffusive ferromagnetic (F) wire and normal metal electrode, due to the onset of superconductivity (S) in the latter and a double Andreev scattering process leading to a complete internal reflection of a large fraction of the spin-polarized electrons back into the ferromagnet. The superconducting transition results in an additional contact resistance arising from the necessity to match spin-polarized current in F-wire to spin-less current in S-reservoir, which is comparable to the resistance of a piece of a F-wire with the length …
We investigate transport and shot noise in lateral N-TI-S contacts, where N is a normal metal, TI is a Bi-based three dimensional topological insulator (3D TI), and S is an s-type superconductor. In normal state, the devices are in the elastic diffusive transport regime, as demonstrated by a nearly universal value of the shot noise Fano factor $F_{\rm N}\approx1/3$ in magnetic field and in reference normal contact. In the absence of magnetic field, we identify the Andreev reflection (AR) regime, which gives rise to the effective charge doubling in shot noise measurements. Surprisingly, the Fan…
In this work we uncover an interesting quantum plateau behavior for the Andreev reflection between a one-dimensional quantum wire and superconductor. The quantum plateau is achieved by properly tuning the interplay of the spin-orbit coupling within the quantum wire and its tunnel coupling to the superconductor. This plateau behavior is justified to be unique by excluding possible existences in the cases associated with multi-channel quantum wire, the Blonder-Tinkham-Klapwijk continuous model with a barrier, and lattice system with on-site impurity at the interface.
We study all the possible different two terminal configurations of Josephson junctions containing wires of time-reversal invariant topological superconductors (TRITOPS) and ordinary superconductors, including combinations with an interacting quantum dot between both wires in the junction. We introduce simple effective Hamiltonians which explain the different qualitative behaviors obtained. We analyze a wide range of phenomena, including occurrence and quenching of the so called $0-π$ transition, anomalous periodicity and jumps of the Josephson current as a function of the phase difference, and…
We have observed the Fano-Kondo anti-resonance in a quantum wire with a side-coupled quantum dot. In a weak coupling regime, dips due to the Fano effect appeared. As the coupling strength increased, conductance in the regions between the dips decreased alternately. From the temperature dependence and the response to the magnetic field, we conclude that the conductance reduction is due to the Fano-Kondo anti-resonance. At a Kondo valley with the Fano parameter $q\approx 0$, the phase shift is locked to $π/2$ against the gate voltage when the system is close to the unitary limit in agreement wit…
We have measured the non-equilibrium current noise in a ballisticone-dimensional wire which exhibits an additional conductanceplateau at $0.7\times2e^2/h$. The Fano factor shows a clearreduction on the 0.7 structure, and eventually vanishes uponapplying a strong parallel magnetic field. These results provideexperimental evidence that the 0.7 structure is associated withtwo conduction channels which have different transmissionprobabilities.
We report on electronic transport properties of mesoscopic superconductor-ferromagnet spin-valve structures. Two ferromagnetic iron leads form planar tunnel contacts to a superconducting aluminum wire, where the distance of the two contacts is of the order of the coherence length of the aluminum. We observe a negative non-local resistance which can be explained by crossed Andreev reflection, a process where an electron incident from one of the leads gets reflected as a hole into the other, thereby creating a pair of spatially separated, entangled particles.
We predict the occurrence of Fano lineshapes in a semiconductor quantum wire with local spin-orbit (Rashba) coupling. We show that the Rashba interaction acts in a strictly one dimensional channel as an attractive impurity, leading to the formation of purely bound states. In a quasi-one dimensional system these bound states couple to the conduction ones through the Rashba intersubband mixing, giving rise to pronounced dips in the linear conductance plateaus. We give exact numerical results and propose an approximate model capturing the main ingredients of the effect.
We report a transport experiment on the Fano effect in a quantum connecting wire (QW) with a side-coupled quantum dot (QD). The Fano resonance occurs between the QD and the "T-shaped" junction in the wire, and the transport detects anti-resonance or forward scattered part of the wavefunction. While in this geometry it is more difficult to tune the shape of the resonance than in the previously reported Aharonov-Bohm-ring type interferometer, the resonance purely consists of the coherent part of transport. By utilizing this advantage, we have qualitatively explained the temperature dependence of…
We theoretically study tunneling of Cooper pairs from an s-wave superconductor into two semiconductor quantum wires with strong spin-orbit interaction under magnetic field, which approximate helical Luttinger liquids. The entanglement of electrons within a Cooper pair can be detected by the electric current cross correlations in the wires. By controlling the relative orientation of the wires, either lithographically or mechanically, on the substrate, the current correlations can be tuned, as dictated by the initial spin entanglement. This proposal of a spin-to-charge readout of quantum correla…
We consider partially gapped one dimensional (1D) conductors connected to normal leads, as realized in fractional helical wires. At certain electron densities, some distinct charge mode develops a gap due to electron interactions, leading to a fractional conductance. For this state we study the current noise caused by tunneling events inside the wire. We find that the noise's Fano-factor is different from the tunneling charge. This fact arises from charge scattering at the wire-leads interfaces. The resulting noise is, however, universal - it depends only on the identification of the gapped mo…
We have studied the Fano effect in a few-electron quantum dot side-coupled to a quantum wire. The conductance of the wire, which shows an ordinal staircase-like quantization without the dot, is modified through the interference (the Fano effect) and the charging effects. These effects are utilized to verify the exhaustion of electrons in the dot. The "addition energy spectrum" of the dot shows a shell structure, indicating that the electron confinement potential is fairly circular. A rapid sign inversion of the Fano parameter on the first conductance plateau with the change of the wire gate vo…
We study Andreev reflection at an interface between a half metal and a superconductor with spin-orbit interaction. While the absence of minority carriers in the half metal makes singlet Andreev reflection impossible, the spin-orbit interaction gives rise to triplet Andreev reflection, i.e., the reflection of a majority electron into a majority hole or vice versa. As an application of our calculation, we consider a thin half metal film or wire laterally attached to a superconducting contact. If the half metal is disorder free, an excitation gap is opened that is proportional to the spin-orbit i…
We investigate the Josephson current in a Fano-Josephson junction formed by the direct coupling between two topological superconducting wires and their indirect coupling via a quantum dot. It is found that when two Majorana zero modes respectively appear in the wires, the Fano interference causes abundant Josephson phase transition processes. What is notable is that in the presence of appropriate direct and indirect inter-wire couplings, the fractional Josephson effect disappears and then such a structure transforms into a $0$-phase normal Josephson junction. On the other hand, if finite coupl…
We investigate a normal metal -- superconductor (point) contact in the limit where the number of conducting channels in the metallic wire is reduced to few channels. As the effective Fermi energy drops below the gap energy, a conducting band with a width twice the Fermi energy is formed. Depending on the mode of operation, the conduction band can be further squeezed, leading to various non-linear effects in the current-voltage characteristics such as current saturation, a N-shaped negative differential resistance, bistability, and hysteresis.
We study the spectrum of Andreev bound states and Josephson currents across a junction of $N$ superconducting wires which may have $s$- or $p$-wave pairing symmetries and develop a scattering matrix based formalism which allows us to address transport across such junctions. For $N \ge 3$, it is well known that Berry curvature terms contribute to the Josephson currents; we chart out situations where such terms can have relatively large effects. For a system of three $s$- or three $p$-wave superconductors, we provide analytic expressions for the Andreev bound state energies and study the Josephs…
We consider electron transport in a quantum wire with a side-coupled quantum ring in a two-dimensional model that accounts for a finite width of the channels. We use the finite difference technique to solve the scattering problem as well as to determine the ring-localized states of the energy continuum. The backscattering probability exhibits Fano peaks for magnetic fields for which a ring-localized states appear at the Fermi level. We find that the width of the Fano resonances changes at high magnetic field. The width is increased (decreased) for resonant states with current circulation that …
The electronic transport in a system of two quantum rings side-coupled to a quantum wire is studied via a single-band tunneling tight-binding Hamiltonian. We derived analytical expressions for the conductance and spin polarization when the rings are threaded by magnetic fluxes with Rashba spin-orbit interaction. We show that by using the Fano and Dicke effects this system can be used as an efficient spin-filter even for small spin orbit interaction and small values of magnetic flux. We compare the spin-dependent polarization of this design and the polarization obtained with one ring side coupl…
The Andreev reflection of the normal state-superconductor junction both in monolayer and bilayer graphene with a single magnetic barrier is investigated by means of the Green's function formalism. Within the tight-binding model, we study the direction-dependent Andreev reflection of two-dimensional graphene-superconductor junctions in the specular and retro-reflection regimes. The presence of a magnetic barrier close to the superconducting hybrid junction introduces a rich phenomenology. Such a barrier is capable of tuning the preferred angles of incidence for the Andreev reflection. In partic…
There are still debates on whether the observed zero energy peak in the experiment by Stevan {\it et al.} [Science 346, 602(2014)] reveals the existence of the long pursuing Majorana bound states (MBS). we propose that, by mounting two scanning tunneling microscopic tips on top of the topological superconducting chain and measure the transmission spectrum between these two metallic tips, there are two kinds of characteristics on the spectrum that are caused by MBS uniquely. One is symmetric peaks with respect to zero energy and the other is $4π$ period caused by a nearby Josephson junction. Th…
The sensitivity of shot noise to the interplay between Kondo correlations and superconductivity is investigated in a carbon nanotube quantum dot connected to superconducting electrodes. Depending on the gate voltage, the SU(2) and SU(4) Kondo unitary regimes can be clearly identified. We observe enhancement of the shot noise via the Fano factor in the superconducting state. Its divergence at low bias voltage, which is more pronounced in the SU(4) regime than in the SU(2) one, is larger than what is expected from proliferation of multiple Andreev reflections predicted by the existing theories. …
The transport through a quantum wire with a side coupled quantum dot is studied. We use the X-boson treatment for the Anderson single impurity model in the limit of $U=\infty $. The conductance presents a minimum for values of T=0 in the crossover from mixed-valence to Kondo regime due to a destructive interference between the ballistic channel associated with the quantum wire and the quantum dot channel. We obtain the experimentally studied Fano behavior of the resonance. The conductance as a function of temperature exhibits a logarithmic and universal behavior, that agrees with recent experi…
It was pointed out by Tewari and Sau that chiral symmetry (H -> -H if e <-> h) of the Hamiltonian of electron-hole (e-h) excitations in an N-mode superconducting wire is associated with a topological quantum number Q\in\mathbb{Z} (symmetry class BDI). Here we show that Q=Tr(r_{he}) equals the trace of the matrix of Andreev reflection amplitudes, providing a link with the electrical conductance G. We derive G=(2e^2/h)|Q| for |Q|=N,N-1, and more generally provide a Q-dependent upper and lower bound on G. We calculate the probability distribution P(G) for chaotic scattering, in the circular ensem…
We report first-principles calculations of shot noise properties of parallel carbon wires in the regime in which the interwire distance is much smaller than the inelastic mean free path. We find that, with increasing interwire distance, the current approaches rapidly a value close to twice the current of each wire, while the Fano factor, for the same distances, is still larger than the Fano factor of a single wire. This enhanced Fano factor is the signature of the correlation between electron waves traveling along the two different wires. In addition, we find that the Fano factor is very sensi…
We study the transport through side-coupled double quantum dots, connected to normal and superconducting (SC) leads with a T-shape configuration. We find, using the numerical renormalization group, that the Coulomb interaction suppresses SC interference in the side dot, and enhances the conductance substantially in the Kondo regime. This behavior stands in total contrast to a wide Kondo valley seen in the normal transport. The SC proximity penetrating into the interfacial dot pushes the Kondo clouds, which screens the local moment in the side dot, towards the normal lead to make the singlet bo…
Andreev interferometers, normal metal wires coupled to superconducting loops, display phase coherent changes as the magnetic flux through the superconducting loops is altered. Properties such as the electronic and thermal conductance of these devices have been shown to oscillate symmetrically about zero with a period equal to one superconducting flux quantum, $Φ_o = h/2e$. However, the thermopower of these devices can oscillate symmetrically or antisymmetrically depending on the geometry of the sample, a phenomenon not well understood theoretically. Here we report on thermopower measurements o…
We report on the experimental investigation of electronic transport in superconductor-ferromagnet spin-valve structures. Our samples consist of two ferromagnetic iron leads forming planar tunnel contacts to a superconducting aluminum wire. At energies below the superconducting gap, we observe a negative four-probe resistance that can be explained by crossed Andreev reflection.
We have measured the non-local resistance of aluminum-iron spin-valve structures fabricated by e-beam lithography and shadow evaporation. The sample geometry consists of an aluminum bar with two or more ferromagnetic wires forming point contacts to the aluminum at varying distances from each other. In the normal state of aluminum, we observe a spin-valve signal which allows us to control the relative orientation of the magnetizations of the ferromagnetic contacts. In the superconducting state, at low temperatures and excitation voltages well below the gap, we observe a spin-dependent non-local…
We study heat and charge transport through a normal diffusive wire coupled with a superconducting wire over the region smaller than the coherence length. Due to partial Andreev reflection of quasiparticles from the interface, the subgap thermal flow is essentially suppressed and approaches zero along with energy, which is specific for diffusive structures. Whereas the electric conductance shows conventional reentrance effect, the thermal conductance rapidly decreases with temperature which qualitatively explains the results of recent experiments. In the Andreev interferometer geometry, the the…
We investigate the transport properties through a finite dimer chain connected to two normal leads or one normal and one superconductor (SC) leads. The dimer chain is described by the Su-Schrieffer-Hegger model and can be tuned into a topologically nontrivial phase with a pair of zero-energy edge states (ZEESs). We find that if the dimer chain is of nontrivial topology, (1) it will show apparent but opposite odd-even parity of the number of sites, in comparison with the topologically trivial and plain chains, in the (Andreev) transmission probability at the Fermi energy (i.e. the conductance a…
We present exact results for the transmission coefficient of a linear lattice at one or more sites of which we attach a Fibonacci quasiperiodic chain. Two cases have been discussed, viz, when a single quasiperiodic chain is coupled to a site of the host lattice and, when more than one dangling chains are grafted periodically along the backbone. Our interest is to observe the effect of increasing the size of the attached quasiperiodic chain on the transmission profile of the model wire. We find clear signature that, with a side coupled semi-infinite Fibonacci chain, the Cantor set structure of …
At a Fano resonance in a quantum wire there is strong quantum mechanical back-scattering. When identical wave packets are incident along all possible modes of incidence, each wave packet is strongly scattered. The scattered wave packets compensate each other in such a way that the outgoing wave packets are similar to the incoming wave packets. This is as if the wave packets are not scattered and not dispersed. This typically happens for the kink-antikink solution of the Sine-Gordon model. As a result of such non-dispersive behavior, the derivation of semi-classical formulas like the Friedel su…
We calculate the current as a function of applied voltage in non-topological s-wave superconductor-quantum dot-topological superconductor tunnel junction. We consider the type of TS which hosts two Majorana bound states (MBS) at the ends of a semiconductor quantum wire or of a chain of magnetic atoms in the proximity with s-wave superconductor. We find that the $I-V$ characteristic of such system in the regime of big voltages has a typical two dot shape and is ornamented by peaks of multiple Andreev reflections. We also consider the other options when the zero energy states are created by diso…
Taking into account an inner structure of the arms of the Aharonov-Bohm ring (AB ring) we have analyzed the transport features related to the topological phase transition which is induced in a superconducting wire (SC wire) with strong spin-orbit interaction (SOI). The SC wire acts as a bridge connecting the arms. The in-plane magnetic-field dependence of linear-response conductance obtained using the nonequilibrium Green's functions in the tight-binding approximation revealed the Breit-Wigner and Fano resonances (FRs) if the wire is in the nontrivial phase. The effect is explained by the pres…
Topological superconductors, which support Majorana fermion excitations, have been the subject of intense studies due to their novel transport properties and their potential applications in fault-tolerant quantum computations. Here we propose a new type of topological superconductors which can be used as a novel source of correlated spin currents. We show that inducing superconductivity on a AIII class topological insulator wire, which respects a chiral symmetry and supports protected fermionic end states, will result in a topological superconductor. This topological superconductor supports tw…
Shot noise reduction in quantum wires is interpreted within the model for the ''0.7 structure'' in the conductance of near perfect quantum wires [T. Rejec, A. Ramsak, and J.H. Jefferson, Phys. Rev. B 62, 12985 (2000)]. It is shown how the Fano factor structure is related to the specific structure of the conductance as a consequence of the singlet--triplet nature of the resonances with the probability ratio 1:3. An additional feature in the Fano factor, related to the ''0.25 structure'' in conductance, is predicted.
We demonstrate possible scenarios for production of pure spin current and large tunnelling magnetoresistance ratios from elastic co-tunnelling and crossed Andreev reflection across a superconducting junction comprising of normal metal-superconductor-normal metal, where, the normal metal is a one-dimensional interacting quantum wire. We show that there are fixed points in the theory which correspond to the case of pure spin current. We analyze the influence of electron-electron interaction and see how it stabilizes or de-stabilizes the production of pure spin current. These fixed points can be …
We analyze the linear conductance of a semiconductor quantum wire containing a region where a local Rashba spin-orbit interaction is present. We show that Fano lineshapes appear in the conductance due to the formation of quasi bound states which interfere with the direct transmission along the wire, a mechanism that we term the Fano-Rashba effect. We obtain the numerical solution of the full Schrödinger equation using the quantum-transmitting-boundary method. The theoretical analysis is performed using the coupled-channel model, finding an analytical solution by ansatz. The complete numerical …
We calculate analytically the current statistics for a short diffusive wire between the normal reservoir and a short superconductor-normal metal-superconductor (SNS) junction, at arbitrary applied voltages and temperatures. The cumulant-generating function oscillates with the phase difference $ϕ$ across the junction, approaching the normal-state value at $ϕ=π$. At T=0 and at the applied voltage much smaller than the proximity gap $Δ_ϕ$, the current noise $P_I$ doubles and the third current cumulant $C_3$ is 4 times larger with respect to their values in the normal state; at $eV \gg Δ_ϕ$ they a…
We analyze the recently measured anomalous transport properties of an ultracold gas through a ballistic constriction [S. Krinner et al., PNAS 201601812 (2016)]. The quantized conductance observed at weak interactions increases several-fold as the gas is made strongly interacting, which cannot be explained by the Landauer theory of single-channel transport. We show that this phenomenon is due to the multichannel Andreev reflections at the edges of the constriction, where the interaction and confinement result in a superconducting state. Andreev processes convert atoms of otherwise reflecting ch…
Using a first principles approach combined with analysis of heuristic tight-binding models, we examine the connectivity dependence of two forms of quantum interference in single molecules. Based on general arguments, Fano resonances are shown to be insensitive to connectivity, while Mach-Zehnder-type interference features are shown to be connectivity dependent. This behaviour is found to occur in molecular wires containing anthraquinone units, in which the pendant carbonyl groups create Fano resonances, which coexist with multiple-path quantum interference features.
