By investigating the nonequilibrium transport across a metal/superconductor junction in both nonrelativistic and relativistic cases, we reveal that the asymmetric Andreev reflection with anisotropic superconductors is able to induce the electric and thermal Hall-like effect, in the absence of magnetic field. That is, a longitudinal electric voltage or temperature bias can induce transverse electric or thermal currents merely through the asymmetric Andreev reflection, respectively. In particular, a transverse thermoelectric effect, i.e., the Ettingshausen-like effect, is identified, although the conjugate Nernst effect is absent. The direction change of these electric and thermal Hall-like currents is also discussed. The Hall-like effects uncovered here do not require the conventional time-reversal symmetry breaking, but rather originate from the mirror symmetry breaking with respect to the interface normal due to the anisotropic paring symmetry of the superconductor.
Andreev reflection spectroscopy of ferromagnet/superconductor (FS) junctions is an important probe of spin polarization. We theoretically investigate spin-polarized transport in FS junctions in the presence of Rashba and Dresselhaus interfacial spin-orbit fields and show that Andreev reflection can be controlled by changing the magnetization orientation. We predict a giant in- and out-of-plane magnetoanisotropy of the junction conductance. If the ferromagnet is highly spin polarized---in the half-metal limit---the magnetoanisotropic Andreev reflection depends universally on the spin-orbit fiel…
We investigate theoretically charge transport in hybrid multiterminal junctions with superconducting leads kept at different voltages. It is found that multiple Andreev reflections involving several superconducting leads give rise to rich subharmonic gap structures in the current-voltage characteristics. The structures are evidenced numerically in junctions in the incoherent regime.
We study Multiple Andreev Reflections in long diffusive superconductor(S)-normal metal(N)-superconductor junctions with low-transparency interfaces. Assuming strong thermalization in the weak link we calculate the current-voltage dependence $I(V)$. At intermediate temperatures, $E_\mathrm{Th}\ll T\llΔ$, the current is dominated by noncoherent multiple Andreev reflections and is obtained analytically. The results are generalized to a ferromagnetic junction. We find that the exchange field produces a non-trivial splitting of the subharmonic gap structure. This effect relies on thermalization and…
We show that Andreev reflection in a junction between ferromagnetic (F) and superconducting (S) graphene regions is fundamentally different from the common FS junctions. For a weakly doped F graphene with an exchange field $h$ larger than its Fermi energy $E_{\rm F}$, Andreev reflection of massless Dirac fermions is associated with a Klein tunneling through an exchange field p-n barrier between two spin-split conduction and valence subbands. We find that this Andreev-Klein process results in an enhancement of the subgap conductance of a graphene FS junction by $h$ up to the point at which the …
We propose the "Andreev molecule", an artificial quantum system composed of two closely spaced Josephson junctions. The coupling between Josephson junctions in an Andreev molecule occurs through the overlap and hybridization of the junction's "atomic" orbitals, Andreev Bound States. A striking consequence is that the supercurrent flowing through one junction depends on the superconducting phase difference across the other junction. Using the Bogolubiov-de-Gennes formalism, we derive the energy spectrum and non-local current-phase relation for arbitrary separation. We demonstrate the possibilit…
Andreev-reflection dominated transport is demonstrated in Al/n-In0.38Ga0.62As superconductor-semiconductor junctions grown by molecular beam epitaxy on GaAs(001). High junction transparency was achieved in low-doped devices by exploiting Si interface bilayers to suppress the native Schottky barrier. It is argued that this technique is ideally suited for the fabrication of ballistic transport hybrid microstructures.
We theoretically demonstrate that a ferromagnetic/superconductor junction on the surface of three-dimensional topological insulators (3D TIs) has an anisotropic angle-dependent Andreev reflection when the in-plane magnetization has a component perpendicular to the junction. In the presence of in-plane magnetization, the Dirac cone's location adjusts in the $k$-space, whereas its out-of-plane component induces a gap. This movement leads to the anisotropic angle-dependent Andreev reflection and creates transverse conductance flows parallel to the interface. Also, an indirect gap induces in the j…
We study theoretically a junction of a $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric non-Hermitian superconductor (PTS) placed between two conventional superconductors. We show that due to non-Hermitian electron-electron interaction in the PTS region and the combination of symmetries, only discrete values of phases of the conventional superconductors yield solutions for Andreev bound states. Remarkably, in the case of $0$ and $π$, we obtain growing and decaying in time Andreev bound states. For $π/2$ and $3π/2$, there is a Majorana zero mode penetrating through the junction in only one direction forming a quasipar…
We study the Josephson effect in a clean Superconductor-Ferromagnet-Superconductor junction for arbitrarily large spin polarizations. The Andreev reflection at a clean Ferromagnet-Superconductor interface is incomplete, and Andreev channels with a large incidence angle are progressively suppressed with increasing exchange energy. As a result, the critical current exhibits oscillations as a function of the exchange energy and of the length of the ferromagnet and has a temperature dependence which deviates from the one predicted by the quasiclassical theory.
We construct a nonequilibrium theory for the charge transfer through a diffusive array of alternating normal (N) and superconducting (S) islands comprising an SNSNS junction, with the size of the central S-island being smaller than the energy relaxation length. We demonstrate that in the nonequilibrium regime the central island acts as Andreev retransmitter with the Andreev conversions at both NS interfaces of the central island correlated via over-the-gap transmission and Andreev reflection. This results in a synchronized transmission at certain resonant voltages which can be experimentally o…
We calculate the electrical currents through a superconductor - insulator - superconductor junction which is also weakly coupled to a normal metal side probe. The voltage $V$ applied to the normal metal terminal controls the occupation of Andreev energy levels $E_n$, and therefore controls the Josephson current flowing through these levels. Whenever the probe voltage crosses an Andreev level, the Josephson current changes abruptly by an amount equal to the current flowing through the Andreev level. The differential conductance along the normal metal terminal permits spectroscopy of the Andreev…
Andreev reflection is investigated in layered anisotropic normal metal / superconductor (N/S) systems in the case of an energy gap Δin S not negligible with respect to the Fermi energy E_F, as it probably occurs with high critical temperature superconductors (HTS). We find that in these limits retro-reflectivity, which is a fundamental feature of Andreev reflection, is broken modifying sensitively transport across S/N interfaces. We discuss the consequences for supercurrents in HTS Josephson junctions and for the midgap states in S-N contacts
Complete suppression of the native n-type Schottky barrier is demonstrated in Al/InGaAs(001) junctions grown by molecular-beam-epitaxy. This result was achieved by the insertion of Si bilayers at the metal-semiconductor interface allowing the realization of truly Ohmic non-alloyed contacts in low-doped and low-In content InGaAs/Si/Al junctions. It is shown that this technique is ideally suited for the fabrication of high-transparency superconductor-semiconductor junctions. To this end magnetotransport characterization of Al/Si/InGaAs low-n-doped single junctions below the Al critical temperatu…
We have investigated low-temperature transport properties of two-dimensional arrays of superconductor--normal-metal--superconductor (SNS) junctions. It has been found that in two-dimensional arrays of SNS junctions (i) a change in the energy spectrum within an interval of the order of the Thouless energy is observed even when the thermal broadening far exceeds the Thouless energy for a single SNS junction; (ii) the manifestation of the subharmonic energy gap structure (SGS) with high harmonic numbers is possible even if the energy relaxation length is smaller than that required for the realiza…
Hybrid superconductor/graphene (SC/g) junctions are excellent candidates for investigating correlations between Cooper pairs and quantum Hall (QH) edge modes. Experimental studies are challenging as Andreev reflections are extremely sensitive to junction disorder and high magnetic fields are required to form QH edge states. We fabricated low-resistance SC/g interfaces, composed of graphene edge contacted with NbN with a barrier strength of $Z\approx 0.4$, that remain superconducting under magnetic fields larger than $18$ T. We establish the role of graphene's Dirac band structure on zero-field…
We consider a long topological Josephson junction formed on a conducting 2D surface of a 3D topological insulator (TI). The superconducting correlations are proximity-induced by s-wave superconductors covering the surface. The 1D spacing between the coverings is either unfilled or filled by a magnetic insulator. Generally, the Josephson current mediated by the TI surface is determined by scattering modes as well as by the states localized around the junction (Andreev bound states or Andreev bands). We find out that it is crucial to take into account both contributions to determine the current-…
Josephson junctions based on semiconductor nanowires are potential building blocks for electrically tunable qubit structures, e.g. the gatemon or the Andreev qubit. However, an actual realization requires the thorough investigation of the intrinsic excitation spectrum. Here, we demonstrate the fabrication of low-loss superconducting microwave circuits that combine high quality factors with a well-controlled gate architecture by utilizing a flip-chip approach. This platform is then used to perform single-tone and two-tone experiments on Andreev states in in-situ grown InAs/Al core/half-shell na…
We present a theory of Andreev reflection in a ferromagnet/superconductor/ferromagnet double junction system. The spin polarized quasiparticles penetrate to the superconductor in the range of penetration depth from the interface by the Andreev reflection. When the thickness of the superconductor is comparable to or smaller than the penetration depth, the spin polarized quasiparticles pass through the superconductor and therefore the electric current depends on the relative orientation of magnetizations of the ferromagnets. The dependences of the magnetoresistance on the thickness of the superc…
The Josephson Effect and Superconducting Proximity Effect were observed in Superconductor -Graphene-Superconductor (SGS) Josephson junctions with coherence lengths comparable to the distance between the superconducting leads. By comparing the measured temperature and doping dependence of the supercurrent and the proximity induced sub-gap features (multiple Andreev reflections) to theoretical predictions we find that, contrary to expectations, the ballistic transport model fails to describe the SGS junctions. In contrast, the diffusive junction model yields close quantitative agreement with the…
We study one-dimensional topological SN and SNS long junctions obtained by placing a topological insulating nanowire in the proximity of either one or two SC finite-size leads. Using the Majorana Polarization order parameter (MP) introduced in Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 096802 (2012)(arxiv:1109.5697) we find that the extended Andreev bound states (ABS) of the normal part of the wire acquire a finite MP: for a finite-size SN junction the ABS spectrum exhibits a zero-energy extended state which carries a full Majorana fermion, while the ABS of long SNS junctions with phase difference $π$ transform in…
We study subgap transport in a ferromagnet-superconductor junction at low temperature due to Andreev reflection. The mismatch of spin polarized current in the ferromagnet and spinless current in the superconductor results in an additional contact resistance which can be reduced by magnon emission in the ferromagnet. Using the s-f model and focusing on half-metallic ferromagnets, we calculate the corresponding nonlinear contribution to the current which is asymmetric with respect to the sign of the bias voltage and is related to the density of states of magnons in the ferromagnet.
We study the quantum Andreev oscillation induced by interference of the edge chiral Majorana fermions in junctions made of quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) insulators and superconductors (SCs). We show two chiral Majorana fermions on a QAH edge with SC proximity generically have a momentum difference $Δk$, which depends on the chemical potentials of both the QAH insulator and the SC. Due to the spatial interference induced by $Δk$, the longitudinal conductance of QAH-SC junctions oscillates with respect to the edge lengths and the chemical potentials, which can be probed via charge transport. Furt…
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 investigate superconducting quantum interference devices consisting of two highly transmissive Josephson junctions coupled by a superconducting loop, all defined in an epitaxial InAs/Al heterostructure. A novel device design allows for independent measurements of the Andreev bound state spectrum within the normal region of a junction and the resulting current-phase relation. We show that knowledge of the Andreev bound state spectrum alone is enough to derive the independently measured phase dependent supercurrent. On the other hand, the opposite relation does not generally hold true as deta…
We study the Andreev levels, supercurrent and tunnelling conductance in a clean Ising superconductor (ISC)/half metal (HM)/Ising superconductor (ISC) Josephson junction with spin-active interfaces using Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations. We theoretically demonstrate the effect of spin mixing, spin flipping processes and spin-orbit coupling (SOC) of the ISC on Andreev Bound States (ABS) spectra, current phase relation (CPR) and tunnelling conductance in transparent and opaque barrier limit. We witness an additional splitting of the Andreev levels due to SOC of the ISC and $0 - π$ transition for di…
We study narrow ballistic Josephson weak links in a InAs quantum wells contacted by Nb electrodes and find a dramatic magnetic-field suppression of the Andreev reflection amplitude, which occurs even for in-plane field orientation with essentially no magnetic flux through the junction. Our observations demonstrate the presence of a Doppler shift in the energy of the Andreev levels, which results from diamagnetic screening currents in the hybrid Nb/InAs-banks. The data for conductance, excess and critical currents can be consistently explained in terms of the sample geometry and the McMillan en…
We investigate the Josephson effcet in superconductor-normal-superconductor junction (SNS) base on the doped unbiased silicene under the perpendicular electric field and off-resonance circularly polarized light. The Andreev reflection (including the retroreflection and specular one) during the subgap transport, the free energy, and the reversal of the Josephson effect as well as the emergence of $ϕ_{0}$-junction are exploited. The Andreev reflection is complete in the NS interface even for the clean interface and without the Fermi wave vector mismatch, which is opposite to the case of ferromag…
Current noise is measured with a SQUID in low impedance and transparent Nb-Al-Nb j unctions of length comparable to the phase breaking length and much longer than the thermal length. The shot noise amplitude is compared with theoretical predictions of doubled shot noise in diffusive normal/superconductor (NS) junctions due to the Andreev reflections. We discuss the heat dissipation away from the normal part through the NS interfaces. A weak applied magnetic field reduces the amplitude of the 1/f noise by a factor of two, showing that even far from equilibrium the sample is in the mesoscopic re…
Ferromagnetic-insulator (FI) based Josephson junctions are promising candidates for a coherent superconducting quantum bit as well as a classical superconducting logic circuit. Recently the appearance of an intriguing atomic-scale 0-pi transition has been theoretically predicted. In order to uncover the mechanism of this phenomena, we numerically calculate the spectrum of Andreev bound states in a FI barrier by diagonalizing the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equation. We show that Andreev spectrum drastically depends on the parity of the FI-layer number L and accordingly the pi (0) state is always more…
We performed microwave spectroscopy of an InAs nanowire between superconducting contacts implementing a finite-length, multi-channel Josephson weak link. Certain features in the spectra, such as the splitting by spin-orbit interactions of the transition lines among Andreev states, have been already understood in terms of non-interacting models. However, we identify here additional transitions, which evidence the presence of Coulomb interactions. By combining experimental measurements and model calculations, we reach a qualitative understanding of these very rich Andreev spectra.
The Andreev conductance across 2d normal metal (N)/superconductor (SC) junctions with relativistic Dirac spectrum is investigated theoretically in the Blonder-Tinkham-Klapwijk formalism. It is shown that for relativistic materials, due to the Klein tunneling instead of impurity potentials, the local strain in the junction is the key factor that determines the transparency of the junction. The local strain is shown to generate an effective Dirac $δ$-gauge field. A remarkable suppression of the conductance are observed as the strength of the gauge field increases. The behaviors of the conductanc…
Using the tight binding model and the non-equilibrium Green function method, we study Andreev reflection in graphene-superconductor junction, where graphene has two nonequal Dirac Cones split in energy and therefore time reversal symmetry is broken. Due to the anti-chiral edge states of the current graphene model, an incident electron travelling along the edges makes distinct contribution to Andreev reflections. In a two-terminal device, because Andreev retro-reflection is not allowed for just the anti-chiral edges, in this case the mutual scattering between edge and bulk states is necessary, …
We numerically study crossed Andreev reflection (CAR) in a topological insulator nanowire T-junction where one lead is proximitized by a superconductor. We perform realistic simulations based on the 3D BHZ model and compare the results with those from an effective 2D surface model, whose computational cost is much lower. Both approaches show that CAR should be clearly observable in a wide parameter range, including perfect CAR in a somewhat more restricted range. Furthermore, it can be controlled by a magnetic field and is robust to disorder. Our effective 2D implementation allows to model sys…
We study the energy spectrum and the electromagnetic response of Andreev bound states in short Josephson junctions made of semiconducting nanowires. We focus on the joint effect of Zeeman and spin-orbit coupling on the Andreev level spectra. Our model incorporates the penetration of the magnetic field in the proximitized wires, which substantially modifies the spectra. We pay special attention to the occurrence of fermion parity switches at increasing values of the field and to the magnetic field dependence of the absorption strength of microwave-induced transitions. Our calculations can be us…
The Josephson current in S-F-S junctions is described by taking into account different reflection (transmission) amplitudes for quasiparticles with spin up and down. We show that the 0-$π$ transition in the junctions can take place at some temperature only for sufficiently strong spin-activity of the interface. In particular, Andreev interface bound state energies in one spin channel have to be all negative, while in the other one positive. Only one spin channel contributes then to the zero-temperature Josephson current. At the temperature of the 0-$π$ transition two spin channels substantiall…
We study coherent multiple Andreev reflections in quantum SNS junctions of finite length and arbitrary transparency. The presence of superconducting bound states in these junctions gives rise to great enhancement of the subgap current. The effect is most pronounced in low-transparency junctions, $D\ll1$, and in the interval of applied voltage $Δ/2<eV<Δ$, where the amplitude of the current structures is proportional to the first power of the junction transparency $D$. The resonant current structures consist of steps and oscillations of the two-particle current and also of multiparticle resonanc…
We theoretically demonstrate unusual features of superconducting proximity effect in gapped graphene which presents a pseudospin symmetry-broken ferromagnet with a net pseudomagnetization. We find that the presence of a band gap makes the Andreev conductance of graphene superconductor/pseudoferromagnet (S/PF) junction to behave similar to that of a graphene ferromagnet-superconductor junction. The energy gap $Δ_N$ enhance the pseudospin inverted Andreev conductance of S/PF junction to reach a limiting maximum value for $Δ_N\gg μ$, which depending on the bias voltage can be larger than the valu…
In this work, we systematically study two phases, called Andreev $π$-phase and orbital-phase, and their influence on the Josephson effect. When the system is time-reversal invariant and centrosymmetric, these two phases only appear in the odd-parity pairings. The Andreev $π$-phase has nothing to do with the specific form of the odd-parity pairings and means an intrinsic $π$-phase between the spin-triplet Cooper pairs entering and leaving CTSCs in the Andreev reflections. The orbital-phase corresponds to the phase difference between the spin-triplet Cooper pairs with opposite spin polarization …
We study the emergent band topology of subgap Andreev bound states in the three-terminal Josephson junctions. We scrutinize the symmetry constraints of the scattering matrix in the normal region connecting superconducting leads that enable the topological nodal points in the spectrum of Andreev states. When the scattering matrix possesses time-reversal symmetry, the gap closing occurs at special stationary points that are topologically trivial as they carry vanishing Berry fluxes. In contrast, for the time-reversal broken case we find topological monopoles of the Berry curvature and correspond…
We consider mesoscopic four-terminal Josephson junctions and study emergent topological properties of the Andreev subgap bands. We use symmetry-constrained analysis for Wigner-Dyson classes of scattering matrices to derive band dispersions. When scattering matrix of the normal region connecting superconducting leads is energy-independent, the determinant formula for Andreev spectrum can be reduced to a palindromic equation that admits a complete analytical solution. Band topology manifests with an appearance of the Weyl nodes which serve as monopoles of finite Berry curvature. The correspondin…
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.
The Andreev reflection amplitude at a clean interface between a half-metallic ferromagnet (H) and a superconductor (S) for which the half metal's magnetization has a gradient perpendicular to the interface is proportional to the excitation energy $\varepsilon$ and vanishes at $\varepsilon=0$ [Béri {\em et al.}, Phys.\ Rev.\ B {\bf 79}, 024517 (2009)]. Here we show that the presence of impurities at or in the immediate vicinity of the HS interface leads to a finite Andreev reflection amplitude at $\varepsilon=0$. This impurity-assisted Andreev reflection dominates the low-bias conductance of a …
We report for the first time enhancement of the supercurrent by means of injection in a mesoscopic three terminal planar SNSNS device made of Al on GaAs. When a current is injected from one of the superconducting Al electrodes at an injection bias $V=Δ(T)/e$, the DC Josephson current between the other two superconducting electrodes has a maximum, giving evidence for an enhancement due to a non-equilibrium injection into bound Andreev states of the underlying semiconductor. The effect persists to temperatures where the equilibrium supercurrent has vanished.
The Andreev bound states and charge transport in a Josephson junction between two superconductors with intrinsic exchange fields are studied. We find that for a parallel configuration of the exchange fields in the superconductors the discrete spectrum consists of two pairs of spin-split states. The Josephson current in this case is mainly carried by bound states. In contrast, for the antiparallel configuration we find that there is no spin-splitting of the bound states and that for phase differences smaller than certain critical value there are no bound states at all. Hence the supercurrent is…
We calculate the differential conductance at a probe inserted in the weak link of a topological Josephson junction, consisting of a semiconducting nanowire deposited on top of two separated superconductors. Our aim is to understand how the peculiar features in the spectrum of Andreev bound states, arising due to the presence of Majorana bound states at the ends of the two topological superconducting wires defining the junction, can be determined through a measurement of the differential conductance. We find that when the probe allows a single propagating mode, the differential conductance pres…
We report anomalous enhancement of the critical current at low temperatures in gate-tunable Josephson junctions made from topological insulator BiSbTeSe$_2$ nanoribbons with superconducting Nb electrodes. In contrast to conventional junctions, as a function of the decreasing temperature $T$, the increasing critical current $I_c$ exhibits a sharp upturn at a temperature $T_*$ around 20$\%$ of the junction critical temperatures for several different samples and various gate voltages. The $I_c$ vs. $T$ demonstrates a short junction behavior for $T>T_*$, but crosses over to a long junction behavio…
We investigate the influence of the superconducting (S) proximity effect in the quantum Hall (QH) regime by computing the charge conductance flowing through a graphene-based QH/S/QH junction. This situation offers the exciting possibility of studying the fate of topological edge states when they experience tunneling processes through the superconductor. We predict the appearance of conductance peaks at integer values of the Landau level filling factor, as a consequence of the quantum interferences taking place at the junction, and provide a semiclassical analysis allowing for a natural interpr…
