The connection of a superconductor to a chaotic ballistic quantum dot leads to interesting phenomena, most notably the appearance of a hard gap in its excitation spectrum. Here we treat such an Andreev billiard semiclassically where the density of states is expressed in terms of the classical trajectories of electrons (and holes) that leave and return to the superconductor. We show how classical orbit correlations lead to the formation of the hard gap, as predicted by random matrix theory in the limit of negligible Ehrenfest time $\tE$, and how the influence of a finite $\tE$ causes the gap to shrink. Furthermore, for intermediate $\tE$ we predict a second gap below $E=π\hbar /2\tE$ which would presumably be the clearest signature yet of $\tE$-effects.
A circular Andreev billiard in a uniform magnetic field is studied. It is demonstrated that the classical dynamics is pseudointegrable in the same sense as for rational polygonal billiards. The relation to a specific polygon, the asymmetric barrier billiard, is discussed. Numerical evidence is presented indicating that the Poincare map is typically weak mixing on the invariant sets. This link between these different classes of dynamical systems throws some light on the proximity effect in chaotic Andreev billiards.
Recently semiclassical approximations have been successfully applied to study the effect of a superconducting lead on the density of states and conductance in ballistic billiards. However, the summation over classical trajectories involved in such theories was carried out using the intuitive picture of Andreev reflection rather than the semiclassical reasoning. We propose a method to calculate the semiclassical sums which allows us to go beyond the diagonal approximation in these problems. In particular, we address the question of whether the off-diagonal corrections could explain the gap in t…
We studied the energy levels of graphene based Andreev billiards consisting of a superconductor region on top of a monolayer graphene sheet. For the case of Andreev retro-reflection we show that the graphene based Andreev billiard can be mapped to the normal metal-superconducting billiards with the same geometry. We also derived a semiclassical quantization rule in graphene based Andreev billiards. The exact and the semiclassically obtained spectrum agree very well both for the case of Andreev retro-reflection and specular Andreev reflection.
We investigate statistical aspects of the entanglement production for open chaotic mesoscopic billiards in contact with superconducting parts, known as Andreev billiards. The complete distributions of concurrence and entanglement of formation are obtained by using the Altland-Zirnbauer symmetry classes of circular ensembles of scattering matrices, which complements previous studies in chaotic universal billiards belonging to other classes of random matrix theory. Our results show a unique and very peculiar behavior: the realization of entanglement in a Andreev billiard always results in non-se…
Andreev billiards are finite, arbitrarily-shaped, normal-state regions, surrounded by superconductor. At energies below the superconducting energy gap, single-quasiparticle excitations are confined to the normal region and its vicinity, the mechanism for confinement being Andreev reflection. Short-wave quantal properties of these excitations, such as the connection between the density of states and the geometrical shape of the billiard, are addressed via a multiple scattering approach. It is shown that one can, inter alia, hear the stationary chords of Andreev billiards.
We present a classical and quantum mechanical study of an Andreev billiard with a chaotic normal dot. We demonstrate that in general the classical dynamics of these normal-superconductor hybrid systems is mixed, thereby indicating the limitations of a widely used retracing approximation. We show that the mixed classical dynamics gives rise to a wealth of wavefunction phenomena, including periodic orbit scarring and localization of the wavefunction onto other classical phase space objects such as intermittent regions and quantized tori.
We study the transport properties of low-energy (quasi)particles ballistically traversing normal and Andreev two-dimensional open cavities with a Sinai-billiard shape. We consider four different geometrical setups and focus on the dependence of transport on the strength of an applied magnetic field. By solving the classical equations of motion for each setup we calculate the magnetoconductance in terms of transmission and reflection coefficients for both the normal and Andreev versions of the billiard, calculating in the latter the critical field value above which the outgoing current of holes…
We examine the density of states of an Andreev billiard and show that any billiard with a finite upper cut-off in the path length distribution $P(s)$ will possess an energy gap on the scale of the Thouless energy. An exact quantum mechanical calculation for different Andreev billiards gives good agreement with the semi-classical predictions when the energy dependent phase shift for Andreev reflections is properly taken into account. Based on this new semi-classical Bohr-Sommerfeld approximation of the density of states, we derive a simple formula for the energy gap. We show that the energy gap…
Quantum cavities or dots have markedly different properties depending on whether their classical counterparts are chaotic or not. Connecting a superconductor to such a cavity leads to notable proximity effects, particularly the appearance, predicted by random matrix theory, of a hard gap in the excitation spectrum of quantum chaotic systems. Andreev billiards are interesting examples of such structures built with superconductors connected to a ballistic normal metal billiard since each time an electron hits the superconducting part it is retroreflected as a hole (and vice-versa). Using a semic…
An effective random matrix theory description is developed for the universal gap fluctuations and the ensemble averaged density of states of chaotic Andreev billiards for finite Ehrenfest time. It yields a very good agreement with the numerical calculation for Sinai-Andreev billiards. A systematic linear decrease of the mean field gap with increasing Ehrenfest time $τ_E$ is observed but its derivative with respect to $τ_E$ is in between two competing theoretical predictions and close to that of the recent numerical calculations for Andreev map. The exponential tail of the density of states is …
Comparing the results of exact quantum calculations and those obtained from the EBK-like quantization scheme of Silvestrov et al [Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 116801 (2003)] we show that the spectrum of Andreev billiards of mixed phase space can basically be decomposed into a regular and an irregular part, similarly to normal billiards. We provide the first numerical confirmation of the validity of this quantization scheme for individual eigenstates and discuss its accuracy.
The density of states in the semiclassical Andreev billiard is theoretically studied and shown to be determined by the fluctuations of the classical Lyapunov exponent $λ$. The rare trajectories with a small value of $λ$ give rise to an anomalous increase of the Ehrenfest time $τ_E\approx |\ln\hbar|/λ$ and, consequently, to the appearance of Andreev levels with small excitation energy. The gap in spectrum is obtained and fluctuations of the value of the gap due to different positions of superconducting lead are considered.
We present a semiclassical approximation to the scattering wavefunction $Ψ(\mathbf{r},k)$ for an open quantum billiard which is based on the reconstruction of the Feynman path integral. We demonstrate its remarkable numerical accuracy for the open rectangular billiard and show that the convergence of the semiclassical wavefunction to the full quantum state is controlled by the path length or equivalently the dwell time. Possible applications include leaky billiards and systems with decoherence present.
We consider the effect of spin-orbit coupling on the low energy excitation spectrum of an Andreev billiard (a quantum dot weakly coupled to a superconductor), using a dynamical numerical model (the spin Andreev map). Three effects of spin-orbit coupling are obtained in our simulations: In zero magnetic field: (1) the narrowing of the distribution of the excitation gap; (2) the appearance of oscillations in the average density of states. In strong magnetic field: (3) the appearance of a peak in the average density of states at zero energy. All three effects have been predicted by random-matrix …
We study the effect on the density of states in mesoscopic ballistic billiards to which a superconducting lead is attached. The expression for the density of states is derived in the semiclassical S-matrix formalism shedding insight into the origin of the differences between the semiclassical theory and the corresponding result derived from random matrix models. Applications to a square billiard geometry and billiards with boundary roughness are discussed. The saturation of the quasiparticle excitation spectrum is related to the classical dynamics of the billiard. The influence of weak magneti…
The energy spectrum and the eigenstates of a rectangular quantum dot containing soft potential walls in contact with a superconductor are calculated by solving the Bogoliubov-de Gennes (BdG) equation. We compare the quantum mechanical solutions with a semiclassical analysis using a Bohr--Sommerfeld (BS) quantization of periodic orbits. We propose a simple extension of the BS approximation which is well suited to describe Andreev billiards with parabolic potential walls. The underlying classical periodic electron-hole orbits are directly identified in terms of ``scar'' like features engraved in…
An Andreev billiard was realized in an array of niobium filled antidots in a high-mobility InAs/AlGaSb heterostructure. Below the critical temperature T_C of the Nb dots we observe a strong reduction of the resistance around B=0 and a suppression of the commensurability peaks, which are usually found in antidot lattices. Both effects can be explained in a classical Kubo approach by considering the trajectories of charge carriers in the semiconductor, when Andreev reflection at the semiconductor-superconductor interface is included. For perfect Andreev reflection, we expect a complete suppressi…
Open chaotic systems are expected to possess universal transport statistics and recently there have been many advances in understanding and obtaining expressions for their transport moments. However when tunnel barriers are added, which represents the situation in more general experimental physical systems much less is known about the behaviour of the moments. By incorporating tunnel barriers in the recursive semiclassical diagrammatic approach we obtain the moment generating function of the transmission eigenvalues at leading and subleading order. For reflection quantities quantum mechanical …
The validity of the retracing approximation in the semiclassical quantization of Andreev billiards is investigated. The exact energy spectrum and the eigenstates of normal-conducting, ballistic quantum dots in contact with a superconductor are calculated by solving the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equation and compared with the semiclassical Bohr-Sommerfeld quantization for periodic orbits which result from Andreev reflections. We find deviations that are due to the assumption of exact retracing electron-hole orbits rather than the semiclassical approximation, as a concurrently performed Einstein-Bril…
We extend the existing quasiclassical theory for the superconducting proximity effect in a chaotic quantum dot, to include a time-reversal-symmetry breaking magnetic field. Random-matrix theory (RMT) breaks down once the Ehrenfest time $τ_E$ becomes longer than the mean time $τ_D$ between Andreev reflections. As a consequence, the critical field at which the excitation gap closes drops below the RMT prediction as $τ_E/τ_D$ is increased. Our quasiclassical results are supported by comparison with a fully quantum mechanical simulation of a stroboscopic model (the Andreev kicked rotator).
We investigate the distribution of the lowest-lying energy states in a disordered Andreev billiard by solving the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equation numerically. Contrary to conventional predictions we find a decrease rather than an increase of the excitation gap relative to its clean ballistic limit. We relate this finding to the eigenvalue spectrum of the Wigner-Smith time delay matrix between successive Andreev reflections. We show that the longest rather than the mean time delay determines the size of the excitation gap. With increasing disorder strength the values of the longest delay times in…
We present a semiclassical theory for the excitation spectrum of a ballistic quantum dot weakly coupled to a superconductor, for the generic situation that the classical motion gives rise to a phase space containing islands of regularity in a chaotic sea. The density of low-energy excitations is determined by quantum energy scales that are related in a simple way to the morphology of the mixed phase space. An exact quantum mechanical computation for the annular billiard shows good agreement with the semiclassical predictions, in particular for the reduction of the excitation gap when the coupl…
We demonstrate that the exact quantum mechanical calculations are in good agreement with the semiclassical predictions for rectangular Andreev billiards and therefore for a large number of open channels it is sufficient to investigate the Bohr-Sommerfeld approximation of the density of states. We present exact calculations of the classical path length distribution $P(s)$ which is a non-differentiable function of $s$, but whose integral is a smooth function with logarithmically dependent asymptotic behavior. Consequently, the density of states of rectangular Andreev billiards has two contributi…
This is a review of recent advances in our understanding of how Andreev reflection at a superconductor modifies the excitation spectrum of a quantum dot. The emphasis is on two-dimensional impurity-free structures in which the classical dynamics is chaotic. Such Andreev billiards differ in a fundamental way from their non-superconducting counterparts. Most notably, the difference between chaotic and integrable classical dynamics shows up already in the level density, instead of only in the level--level correlations. A chaotic billiard has a gap in the spectrum around the Fermi energy, while in…
Andreev billiards are finite, arbitrarily-shaped, normal-state regions, surrounded by superconductor. At energies below the superconducting gap, single-quasiparticle excitations are confined to the normal region and its vicinity, the essential mechanism for this confinement being Andreev reflection. This Paper develops and implements a theoretical framework for the investigation of the short-wave quantal properties of these single-quasiparticle excitations. The focus is primarily on the relationship between the quasiparticle energy eigenvalue spectrum and the geometrical shape of the normal-st…
Thermodynamic Uncertainty Relations in Chaotic Andreev Billiards
Universidade Estadual Paulista（圣保罗州立大学）；Laboratório Nacional de Luz Síncrotron, Centro Nacional de Pesquisa em Energia e Materiais（巴西国家同步辐射光源实验室，国家能源与材料研究中心）；Universidade Federal da Paraíba（帕拉伊巴联邦大学）
A semiclassical theory is developed for the appearance of an excitation gap in a ballistic chaotic cavity connected by a point contact to a superconductor. Diffraction at the point contact is a singular perturbation in the limit $\hbar\to 0$, which opens up a gap $E_{\rm gap}$ in the excitation spectrum. The time scale $\hbar/E_{\rm gap}\proptoα^{-1}\ln\hbar$ (with $α$ the Lyapunov exponent) is the Ehrenfest time, the characteristic time scale of quantum chaos.
We present a detailed semiclassical study of a clean disk--shaped insulator--normal-metal--superconductor hybrid system in a magnetic field. It is based on an exact secular equation that we derived within the microscopic Bogoliubov--de Gennes (BdG) formalism. Results obtained from a classification of electron and hole orbits are in excellent agreement with those from an exact numerical diagonalization of the BdG equation. Our analysis opens up new possibilities for determining thermodynamic properties of mesoscopic hybrid systems.
We derive the statistics of the time-delay matrix (energy derivative of the scattering matrix) in an ensemble of superconducting quantum dots with chaotic scattering (Andreev billiards), coupled ballistically to $M$ conducting modes (electron-hole modes in a normal metal or Majorana edge modes in a superconductor). As a first application we calculate the density of states $ρ_0$ at the Fermi level. The ensemble average $\langleρ_0\rangle=δ_0^{-1}M[\max(0,M+2α/β)]^{-1}$ deviates from the bulk value $1/δ_0$ by an amount depending on the Altland-Zirnbauer symmetry indices $α,β$. The divergent aver…
We investigate the semiclassical energy spectrum of quantum elliptic billiard. The nearest neighbor spacing distribution, level number variance and spectral rigidity support the notion that the elliptic billiard is a generic integrable system. However, second order statistics exhibit a novel property of long-range oscillations. Classical simulation shows that all the periodic orbits except two are not isolated. In Fourier analysis of the spectrum, all the peaks correspond to periodic orbits. The two isolated periodic orbits have small contribution to the fluctuation of level density, while non…
We perform a comparative study of the quantum and classical transport probabilities of low-energy quasiparticles ballistically traversing normal and Andreev two-dimensional open cavities with a Sinai-billiard shape. We focus on the dependence of the transport on the strength of an applied magnetic field $B$. With increasing field strength the classical dynamics changes from mixed to regular phase space. Averaging out the quantum fluctuations, we find an excellent agreement between the quantum and classical transport coefficients in the complete range of field strengths. This allows an overall …
We study Andreev billiards of box and disk geometries by matching the wave functions at the interface of the normal and the superconducting region using the exact solutions of the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equation. The mismatch in the Fermi wavenumbers and the effective masses of the normal system and the superconductor, as well as the tunnel barrier at the interface are taken into account. A Weyl formula (for the smooth part of the counting function of the energy levels) is derived. The exact quantum mechanical calculations show equally spaced singularities in the density of states. Based on the …
We study orbital entanglement production in a chaotic cavity connected to four single-channel normal-metal leads and one superconducting lead, assuming the presence of time-reversal symmetry (TRS). The scattered state of two incident electrons is written as the superposition of several two-outgoing quasi-particle states, four of which are orbitally entangled in a left-right bipartition. We calculate numerically the mean value of the squared norm of each scattered state's component, as functions of the number of channels in the superconducting lead. Its behavior is explained as resulting from t…
We calculate the joint distribution $P(S,Q)$ of the scattering matrix $S$ and time-delay matrix $Q=-i\hbar S^\dagger dS/dE$ of a chaotic quantum dot coupled by point contacts to metal electrodes. While $S$ and $Q$ are statistically independent for ballistic coupling, they become correlated for tunnel coupling. We relate the ensemble averages of $Q$ and $S$ and thereby obtain the average density of states at the Fermi level. We apply this to a calculation of the effect of a tunnel barrier on the Majorana resonance in a topological superconductor. We find that the presence of a Majorana bound st…
We present a semiclassical theory for transport through open billiards of arbitrary convex shape that includes diffractively scattered paths at the lead openings. Starting from a Dyson equation for the semiclassical Green's function we develop a diagrammatic expansion that allows a systematic summation over classical paths and pseudo-paths which consist of classical paths joined by diffractive scatterings (``kinks''). This renders the inclusion of an exponentially proliferating number of pseudo-path combinations numerically tractable for both regular and chaotic billiards. For a circular billi…
We present a comprehensive semiclassical investigation of the three-dimensional Sinai billiard, addressing a few outstanding problems in "quantum chaos". We were mainly concerned with the accuracy of the semiclassical trace formula in two and higher dimensions and its ability to explain the universal spectral statistics observed in quantized chaotic systems. For this purpose we developed an efficient KKR algorithm to compute an extensive and accurate set of quantal eigenvalues. We also constructed a systematic method to compute millions of periodic orbits in a reasonable time. Introducing a pr…
When a quantum-chaotic normal conductor is coupled to a superconductor, random-matrix theory predicts that a gap opens up in the excitation spectrum which is of universal size $E_g^{\rm RMT}\approx 0.3 \hbar/t_D$, where $t_D$ is the mean scattering time between Andreev reflections. We show that a scarred state of long lifetime $t_S\gg t_D$ suppresses the excitation gap over a window $ΔE\approx 2 E_g^{\rm RMT}$ which can be much larger than the narrow resonance width $Γ_S=\hbar/t_S$ of the scar in the normal system. The minimal value of the excitation gap within this window is given by $Γ_S/2\l…
We investigate the crossover from the semiclassical to the quantum description of electron energy states in a chaotic metal grain connected to a superconductor. We consider the influence of scattering off point impurities (quantum disorder) and of quantum diffraction (quantum chaos) on the electron density of states. We show that both the quantum disorder and the quantum chaos open a gap near the Fermi energy. The size of the gap is determined by the mean free time in disordered systems and by the Ehrenfest time in clean chaotic systems. Particularly, if both times become infinitely large, the…
We introduce quantum maps with particle-hole conversion (Andreev reflection) and particle-hole symmetry, which exhibit the same excitation gap as quantum dots in the proximity to a superconductor. Computationally, the Andreev maps are much more efficient than billiard models of quantum dots. This makes it possible to test analytical predictions of random-matrix theory and semiclassical chaos that were previously out of reach of computer simulations. We have observed the universal distribution of the excitation gap for large Lyapunov exponent and the logarithmic reduction of the gap when the Eh…
We introduce a boundary integral method for two-dimensional quantum billiards subjected to a constant magnetic field. It allows to calculate spectra and wave functions, in particular at strong fields and semiclassical values of the magnetic length. The method is presented for interior and exterior problems with general boundary conditions. We explain why the magnetic analogues of the field-free single and double layer equations exhibit an infinity of spurious solutions and how these can be eliminated at the expense of dealing with (hyper-)singular operators. The high efficiency of the method i…
We study the magneto-transport in Aharonov-Bohm (AB) billiards forming doubly connected structures. In these systems, non-averaged conductance oscillates as a function of magnetic flux with period h/e. We derive formulas of the correlation function C of the magneto-conductance for chaotic and regular AB billiards by use of the semiclassical theory. The different higher harmonics behaviors for C are related to the differing distribution of classical dwelling times. The AB oscillation in ballistic regimes provides an experimental probe of quantum signatures of classical chaotic and regular dynam…
We use a semiclassical approach for analysing the tunneling transport through a normal conductor in contact with superconducting mirrors. Our analysis of the electron-hole propagation along semiclassical trajectories shows that resonant transmission through Andreev levels is possible resulting in an excess, low-energy quasiparticle contribution to the conductance. The excess conductance oscillates with the phase difference between the superconductors having maxima at odd multiples of $π$ for temperatures much below the Thouless temperature
We present a semiclassical description of the level density of a two-dimensional circular quantum dot in a homogeneous magnetic field. We model the total potential (including electron-electron interaction) of the dot containing many electrons by a circular billiard, i.e., a hard-wall potential. Using the extended approach of the Gutzwiller theory developed by Creagh and Littlejohn, we derive an analytic semiclassical trace formula. For its numerical evaluation we use a generalization of the common Gaussian smoothing technique. In strong fields orbit bifurcations, boundary effects (grazing orbi…
We consider chaotic billiards in d dimensions, and study the matrix elements M_{nm} corresponding to general deformations of the boundary. We analyze the dependence of |M_{nm}|^2 on ω= (E_n-E_m)/\hbar using semiclassical considerations. This relates to an estimate of the energy dissipation rate when the deformation is periodic at frequency ω. We show that for dilations and translations of the boundary, |M_{nm}|^2 vanishes like ω^4 as ω-> 0, for rotations like ω^2, whereas for generic deformations it goes to a constant. Such special cases lead to quasi-orthogonality of the eigenstates on the bo…
We study the quantum-interference effect in the ballistic Aharonov-Bohm (AB) billiard. The wave-number averaged conductance and the correlation function of the non-averaged conductance are calculated by use of semiclassical theory. Chaotic and regular AB billiards have turned out to lead to qualitatively different semiclassical formulas for the conductance with their behavior determined only by knowledge regarding the underlying classical scattering.
The Path-Length Spectra of mesoscopic systems including diffractive scatterers and connected to superconductor is studied theoretically. We show that the spectra differs fundamentally from that of normal systems due to the presence of Andreev reflection. It is shown that negative path-lengths should arise in the spectra as opposed to normal system. To highlight this effect we carried out both quantum mechanical and semiclassical calculations for the simplest possible diffractive scatterer. The most pronounced peaks in the Path-Length Spectra of the reflection amplitude are identified by the ro…
The persistent current of ballistic chaotic billiards is considered with the help of the Gutzwiller trace formula. We derive the semiclassical formula of a typical persistent current $I^{typ}$ for a single billiard and an average persistent current $<I>$ for an ensemble of billiards at finite temperature. These formulas are used to show that the persistent current for chaotic billiards is much smaller than that for integrable ones. The persistent currents in the ballistic regime therefore become an experimental tool to search for the quantum signature of classical chaotic and regular dynamics.
We study the influence of different edge types on the electronic density of states of graphene nanostructures. To this end we develop an exact expansion for the single particle Green's function of ballistic graphene structures in terms of multiple reflections from the system boundary, that allows for a natural treatment of edge effects. We first apply this formalism to calculate the average density of states of graphene billiards. While the leading term in the corresponding Weyl expansion is proportional to the billiard area, we find that the contribution that usually scales with the total len…
A Josephson junction made of a generic magnetic material sandwiched between two conventional superconductors is studied in the ballistic semi-classic limit. The spectrum of Andreev bound states is obtained from the single-valuedness of a particle-hole spinor over closed orbits generated by electron-hole reflections at the interfaces between superconducting and normal materials. The semiclassical quantization condition is shown to depend only on the angle mismatch between initial and final spin directions along such closed trajectories. For the demonstration, an Andreev-Wilson loop in the compo…
We investigate a semiclassical conductance for ballistic open three-dimensional (3-d) billiards. For partially or completely broken-ergodic 3-d billiards such as SO(2) symmetric billiards, the dependence of the conductance on the Fermi wavenumber is dramatically changed by the lead orientation. Application of a symmetry-breaking weak magnetic field brings about mixed phase-space structures of 3-d billiards which ensures a novel Arnold diffusion that cannot be seen in 2-d billiards. In contrast to the 2-d case, the anomalous increment of the conductance should inevitably include a contribution …
We study the weak localization effect in quantum transport through a clean ballistic cavity with regular classical dynamics. We address the question which paths account for the suppression of conductance through a system where disorder and chaos are absent. By exploiting both quantum and semiclassical methods, we unambiguously identify paths that are diffractively backscattered into the cavity (when approaching the lead mouths from the cavity interior) to play a key role. Diffractive scattering couples transmitted and reflected paths and is thus essential to reproduce the weak-localization pea…
In this work, we perform a statistical study on Dirac Billiards in the extreme quantum limit (a single open channel on the leads). Our numerical analysis uses a large ensemble of random matrices and demonstrates the preponderant role of dephasing mechanisms in such chaotic billiards. Physical implementations of these billiards range from quantum dots of graphene to topological insulators structures. We show, in particular, that the role of finite crossover fields between the universal symmetries quickly leaves the conductance to the asymptotic limit of unitary ensembles. Furthermore, we show t…
In a recent letter [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 100}, 164101 (2008)] and within the context of quantized chaotic billiards, random plane wave and semiclassical theoretical approaches were applied to an example of a relatively new class of statistical measures, i.e. measures involving both complete spatial integration and energy summation as essential ingredients. A quintessential example comes from the desire to understand the short-range approximation to the first order ground state contribution of the residual Coulomb interaction. Billiards, fully chaotic or otherwise, provide an ideal class of sy…
We present experimental studies of the geometry-specific quantum scattering in microwave billiards of a given shape. We perform full quantum mechanical scattering calculations and find an excellent agreement with the experimental results. We also carry out the semiclassical calculations where the conductance is given as a sum of all classical trajectories between the leads, each of them carrying the quantum-mechanical phase. We unambiguously demonstrate that the characteristic frequencies of the oscillations in the transmission and reflection amplitudes are related to the length distribution o…
We show that the quasi-continuous gapless spectrum of Andreev bound states in multi-terminal semi-classical superconducting nanostructures exhibits a big number of topological singularities. We concentrate on Weyl points in a 4-terminal nanostructure, compute their density and correlations in 3D parameter space for a universal RMT model as well as for the concrete nanostructures described by the quantum circuit theory. We mention the opportunities for experimental observation of the effect in a quasi-continuous spectrum.
When coupling a superconductor to a normal conducting region the physical properties of the system are highly affected by the superconductor. We will investigate the effect of one or two superconductors on the conductance of a ballistic chaotic quantum dot to leading order in the total channel number using trajectory based semiclassics. The results show that the effect of one superconductor on the conductance is of the order of the number of channels and that the sign of the correction from the Drude conductance depends on the particular ratios of the numbers of channels of the superconducting…
We study a transverse electron-hole focusing effect in a normal-superconductor system. The spectrum of the quasiparticles is calculated both quantum mechanically and in semiclassical approximation, showing an excellent agreement. A semiclassical conductance formula is derived which takes into account the effect of electron-like as well as hole-like quasiparticles. At low magnetic field the semiclassical conductance shows characteristic oscillations due to the Andreev reflection, while at higher fields it goes to zero. These findigs are in line with the results of previous quantum calculations …
It is shown that the spin-orbit and Zeeman interactions result in phase shifts of Andreev-reflected holes in disordered topological insulator, or normal Rashba spin-orbit-coupled wires, which are in a contact with an s-wave superconductor. Due to interference of the holes reflected through different paths in Andreev interferometer the electric current through the contact varies depending on the strength and direction of the Zeeman field. It also depends on mutual orientations of Zeeman fields in different shoulders of the interferometer. Such a nonlocal effect is a result of the long-range coh…
A finite-size normal conductor, proximity-coupled to a superconductor has been predicted to exhibit a so-called minigap, in which quasiparticle excitations are prohibited. Here, we report on the direct observation of such a minigap in ballistic graphene, coupled to superconducting MoRe leads. The minigap is probed by finite bias spectroscopy through a weakly coupled junction in the graphene region and its value is given by the dimensions of the device. Besides the minigap, we observe a distinct peak in the differential resistance, which we attribute to weakly coupled Andreev bound states (ABS)…
We study the ground state properties of a ferromagnet-superconductor heterostructure on the basis of a quasiclassical theory. We have solved the Eilenberger equations together with Maxwell's equation fully self-consistently and found that due to the proximity effect a Fulde-Ferrel-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) like state is realized in such system. Moreover this state has oscillations of the pairing amplitude in either one or two directions, depending on the exchange splitting and thickness of the ferromagnet. In particular, using semiclassical arguments (Bohr-Sommerfeld quantization rule) we show…
