Indium Arsenide (InAs) near surface quantum wells (QWs) are promising for the fabrication of semiconductor-superconductor heterostructures given that they allow for a strong hybridization between the two-dimensional states in the quantum well and the ones in the superconductor. In this work we present results for InAs QWs in the quantum Hall regime placed in proximity of superconducting NbTiN. We observe a negative downstream resistance with a corresponding reduction of Hall (upstream) resistance, consistent with a very high Andreev conversion. We analyze the experimental data using the Landauer-Büttiker formalism, generalized to allow for Andreev reflection processes. We attribute the high efficiency of Andreev conversion in our devices to the large transparency of the InAs/NbTiN interface and the consequent strong hybridization of the QH edge modes with the states in the superconductor.
We first show the realization of exceptional points in a non-Hermitian superconducting system based on a conventional superconductor and then demonstrate that, surprisingly, the system hosts odd-frequency pairing, solely generated by the non-Hermiticity. While there is a coexistence of even- and odd-frequency pairs under general conditions, we find that the even-frequency term vanishes at the exceptional degeneracies, leaving only odd-frequency pairing. This exceptional odd-frequency pairing is directly given by the imaginary part of the eigenvalues at the exceptional points and can be measure…
The presence of shell structure and the accompanying high level degeneracy leads to a strengthening of the pairing interaction in some metallic nanoclusters and ions. It is predicted that for some specific systems one can expect a large increase in the values of the critical temperature and other parameters.
Unlike bulk superconductivity, where one energy scale, the energy gap, characterizes pairing correlations, we show that in small superconducting grains there exist two different such quantities. The first characterizes cumulative properties of the grain, such as the condensation energy, and the second single-particle properties. To describe these two energy scales, we define two corresponding pairing parameters, and show that although both reduce to the bulk gap for large grains, this occurs at different size scales.
Despite the robustness of the chiral edge modes of quantum Hall systems against the superconducting proximity effect, Cooper pairs can penetrate into the chiral edge channels and carry the Josephson current in an appropriate setup. In our work, the Josephson junction of a spin-polarized quantum anomalous Hall insulator (QAHI) with a Chern number $ν=1$ connecting conventional superconductors is studied from the perspective of pairing symmetry consistent with the chiral edge mode. Induced pairing states are equal-spin triplet, a combination of the even- and odd-frequency components, nonlocally e…
We report observation of the nonlinear Meissner effect (NLME) in Nb films by measuring the resonance frequency of a planar superconducting cavity as a function of the magnitude and the orientation of a parallel magnetic field. Use of low power rf probing in films thinner than the London penetration depth, significantly increases the field for the vortex penetration onset and enables NLME detection under true equilibrium conditions. The data agree very well with calculations based on the Usadel equations. We propose to use NLME angular spectroscopy to probe unconventional pairing symmetries in …
In this work the effects of defects in the superconducting phases of the twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) are investigated. A will-accepted low energy effective model and a non-magnetic impurity potential to mimic defects are employed. Different superconducting pairing symmetries, including $s$-wave, $(d+id)$-wave and $(p+ip)$-wave pairing, are considered. In single impurity case, the local density of states (DOS) are calculated for the pairing symmetries above. For different pairing symmetries the number and property of bound states induced by defects are different. In multi-impurity case, the …
Odd-frequency superconductivity represents a truly unconventional ordered state which, in contrast to conventional superconductivity, exhibits pair correlations which are odd in relative time and, hence, inherently dynamical. In this review article we provide an overview of recent advances in the study of odd-frequency superconducting correlations in one-dimensional systems. In particular, we focus on recent developments in the study of nanowires with Rashba spin-orbit coupling and metallic edges of two-dimensional topological insulators in proximity to conventional superconductors. These syst…
We propose a graphene-based model for realizing a new type of gapless condensate by pairing of electron-like (n) carriers of a Dirac cone conduction band with hole-like (p) carriers of a Dirac valance band. Ferromagnetic superconductivity (FS) in monolayer graphene or pairing between oppositely (n and p) doped layers of a double layer graphene allow for the formation of this p-n superconductivity. For FS in graphene, the p-n condensate dominates the zero temperature phase diagram at low levels of doping and high exchange fields. We show that p-n pairing with p+ip-wave symmetry presents a stabl…
We show how the pairing symmetry of superconducting states in twisted bilayer graphene can be experimentally identified by theoretically studying effects of externally applied in-plane magnetic field and strain. In the low field regime, superconducting critical temperature $T_c$ is suppressed by in-plane magnetic field $\boldsymbol{B}_{\parallel}$ in singlet channels, but is enhanced by weak $\boldsymbol{B}_{\parallel}$ in triplet channels, providing an important distinction. The in-plane angular dependence of the critical $\boldsymbol{B}_{\parallel, c}$ has a six-fold rotational symmetry, whi…
Superconducting correlations which are long-ranged in magnetic systems have attracted much attention due to their spin-polarization properties and potential use in spintronic devices. Whereas experiments have demonstrated the slow decay of such correlations, it has proven more difficult to obtain a smoking gun signature of their odd-frequency character which is responsible, e.g. for their gapless behavior. We here demonstrate that the magnetic susceptibility response of a normal metal in contact with a superconducting spin-valve provides precisely this signature, namely in form of an anomalous…
We consider normal-superconductor (NS) and superconductor-normal-superconductor (SNS) junctions based on one-dimensional nanowires with Rashba spin-orbit coupling and proximity-induced $s$-wave spin-singlet superconductivity and analytically demonstrate how both even- and odd-frequency and spin-singlet and -triplet superconducting pair correlations are always present. In particular, by using a fully quantum mechanical scattering approach, we show that Andreev reflection induces mixing of spatial parities at interfaces, thus being the unique process which generates odd-frequency pairing; on the…
We find the spin polarized disordered Fermi liquids are unstable to the nucleation of superconducting pairing states at mesoscopic scales even when magnetic fields which polarize the spins are substantially higher than the critical one. We study the probability of finding superconducting pairing states at mesoscopic scales in this limit. We find that the distribution function depends only on the film conductance. The typical length scale at which pairing takes place is universal, and decreases when the magnetic field is increased. The number density of these states determines the strength of t…
We show that effective superconducting orders generally emerge at low energy in the superconducting state of graphene with conventionally defined pairing symmetry . We study such a particular interesting example, the $d_{x^2-y^2}+id'_{xy}$ spin singlet pairing superconducting state in graphene, which can be generated by electronic correlation as well as induced through a proximity effect with a d-wave superconductor. We find that effectively the d-wave state is a state with mixed s-wave and exotic $p+ip$-wave pairing orders at low energy. This remarkable property leads to distinctive supercond…
Motivated by recent experimental progress, we study the effect of mechanical deformations on the superconducting pairing symmetries in monolayer black phosphorus (MBP). Starting with phonon-mediated intervalley spin-singlet electron-electron pairing and making use of realistic band parameters obtained through first-principles calculations, we show that the application of weak mechanical strain in the plane of MBP can change the effective $s$-wave and $p$-wave symmetry of the superconducting correlations into effective $d$-wave and $f$-wave symmetries, respectively. This prediction of a change …
We report on our theoretical investigations that point to the possibility of a fractional quantum Hall effect with partial spin polarization at $ν=3/8$. The physics of the incompressible state proposed here involves p-wave pairing of composite fermions in the spin reversed sector. The temperature and magnetic field regimes for the realization of this state are estimated.
We show that the topological Majorana modes in nanowires much longer than the superconducting coherence length are adiabatically connected with discrete zero-energy states generically occurring in short nanowires. We demonstrate that these zero-energy crossings can be tuned by an external magnetic field and are protected by the particle-hole symmetry. We study the evolution of the low-energy spectrum and the splitting oscillations as a function of magnetic field, wire length, and chemical potential, manifestly establishing that the low-energy physics of short wires is related to that occurring…
Magnetic molecules adsorbed on a superconductor give rise to a local competition of Cooper pair and Kondo singlet formation inducing subgap bound states. For Manganese-phthalocyanine molecules on a Pb(111) substrate, scanning tunneling spectroscopy resolves pairs of subgap bound states and two Kondo screening channels. We show in a combined approach of scaling and numerical renormalization group calculations that the intriguing relation between Kondo screening and superconducting pairing is solely determined by the hybridization strength with the substrate. We demonstrate that an effective one…
We derive the effective Hamiltonian for the composite fermion in double-layer quantum Hall systems with inter-layer tunneling at total Landau-level filling factor $ν=1/m$, where $m$ is an integer. We find that the ground state is the triplet p-wave BCS pairing state of the composite fermions. At $ν=1/2$, the ground state of the system evolves from the Halperin $(3,3,1)$-state toward the Pfaffian-state with increasing the tunneling amplitude. On the other hand, at $ν=1$, the pairing state is uniquely determined independent of tunneling amplitude.
We find an analogy between the single skyrmion state in the quantum Hall system and the BCS superconducting state and address that the quantum mechanical origin of the skyrmion is electronic pairing. The skyrmion phase is found to be unstable for magnetic fields above the critical field $B_{c}(T)$ at temperature $T$, which is well represented by the relation $B_c(T)/B_{c}(0) \approx {[1-(T/T_c)^3]}^{1/2}$.
We discuss the composite fermion pairing state in bilayer quantum Hall systems. After the evaluation of the range of the inter-layer separation in which the quantum Hall state is stabilized, we discuss the effect of inter-layer tunneling on the composite fermion pairing state at ν=1/2. We show that there is a cusp at the transition point between the Halperin (3,3,1) state and the Pfaffian state.
We discuss the possibility of the quantum Hall effect at half-filled Landau level in terms of the pairing of the composite fermions. In the absence of Coulomb energy, we show that the ground state of the system is described by the {\it p}-wave BCS pairing state of composite fermions. When the ratio $α\equiv (e^2/ε\ell_B)/ε_F$ ($\ell_B$ : the magnetic length, $ε_F$ : Fermi energy of the composite fermions) is larger than a critical value $α_c \sim 8.2$ the gap of the pairing state vanishes. However, $α$ remains less than $α_c$ if $\hbar ω_c \gg e^2/ε\ell_B$ holds. Then in this situation it is p…
Fractional quantum Hall (FQH) states have recently been observed at unexpected values of the filling factor nu. Here we interpret these states as a novel family of FQH states involving pairing correlations rather than Laughlin correlations among the quasiparticles (QP's). The correlations depend upon the behavior of the QP-QP pseudopotential V_QP(L'), the interaction energy of a pair as a function of the pair angular momentum L'. This behavior, known from numerical studies of small systems, is used to demonstrate that pairing correlations give rise to FQH states at the experimentally observed …
We investigate the emergence and consequences of odd-frequency spin-triplet s-wave pairing in superconducting hybrid junctions at the edge of a two-dimensional topological insulator without any magnetism. More specifically, we consider several different normal-superconductor hybrid systems at the topological insulator edge, where spin-singlet s-wave superconducting pairing is proximity-induced from an external conventional superconductor. We perform fully analytical calculations and show that odd-frequency mixed spin-triplet s-wave pairing arises due to the unique spin-momentum locking in the …
A novel hierarchy of fractional quantum Hall (FQH) states in the lowest Landau level (LL) is proposed to explain recently observed FQH fractions such as nu=5/13, 3/8, or 4/11. Based on the analysis of their interaction pseudopotentials, it is argued that the Laughlin quasiparticles (particles/holes in a partially filled composite fermion LL) form pairs. These pairs are proposed to have Laughlin correlations with one another and to form condensed states at a sequence of fractions which includes all new fractions observed in experiment.
The behavior of electrons in condensed matter systems is mostly determined by the repulsive Coulomb interaction. However, under special circumstances the Coulomb interaction can be effectively attractive, giving rise to electron pairing in unconventional superconductors and specifically designed mesoscopic setups. In quantum Hall systems electron interactions can play a particularly important role due to the huge degeneracy of Landau levels, leading for instance to the emergence of quasi-particles with fractional charge and anyonic statistics. Quantum Hall Fabry-Pérot (FPI) interferometers hav…
We study pairing effects in the edge states of paired fractional quantum Hall states by using persistent edge currents as a probe. We give the grand partition functions for edge excitations of paired states (Pfaffian, Haldane-Rezayi, 331) coupling to an Aharanov-Bohm flux and derive the exact formulas of the persistent edge current. We show that the currents are flux periodic with the unit flux $ϕ_0=hc/e$. At low temperatures, they exhibit anomalous oscillations in their flux dependence. The shapes of the functions depend on the bulk topological order. They converge to the sawtooth function wi…
A unique property of metal nanoclusters is the "superatom" shell structure of their delocalized electrons. The electronic shell levels are highly degenerate and therefore represent sharp peaks in the density of states. This can enable exceptionally strong electron pairing in certain clusters composed of tens to hundreds of atoms. In a finite system, such as a free nanocluster or a nucleus, pairing is observed most clearly via its effect on the energy spectrum of the constituent fermions. Accordingly, we performed a photoionization spectroscopy study of size-resolved aluminum nanoclusters and o…
We analyze the magnetic field and gate voltage dependence of the longitudinal resistance in an integer quantum Hall Fabry-Pérot interferometer, taking into account the interactions between an interfering edge mode, a non-interfering edge mode and the bulk. For weak bulk-edge coupling and sufficiently strong inter-edge interaction, we obtain that the interferometer operates in the Aharonov-Bohm regime with a flux periodicity halved with respect to the usual expectation. Even in the regime of strong bulk-edge coupling, this behavior can be observed as a subperiodicity of the interference signal …
From the analysis of their interaction pseudopotentials, it is argued that (at certain filling factors) Laughlin quasiparticles can form pairs. It is further proposed that such pairs could have Laughlin correlations with one another and form condensed states of a new type. The sequence of fractions corresponding to these states includes all new fractions observed recently in experiment (e.g., ν=5/13, 3/8, or 4/11).
A thin film of a topological insulator (TI) on a dielectric substrate and a bulk TI - dielectric film - bulk TI structure are considered as natural double-well heterostructures suitable for realizing the counterflow superconductivity. The effect is connected with pairing of electrons and holes belonging to different surfaces of TI and the transition of a gas of electron-hole pairs into a superfluid state. The case of TI heterostructures subjected to a strong perpendicular magnetic field is considered. It is shown that such systems are characterized by two critical temperatures - a mean-field t…
We study the pairing symmetry of the interlayer paired state of composite fermions in quantum Hall bilayers. Based on the Halperin-Lee-Read (HLR) theory, the effect of the long-range Coulomb interaction and the internal Chern-Simons gauge fluctuation is analyzed with the random-phase approximation beyond the leading order contribution in small momentum expansion, and we observe that the interlayer paired states with a relative angular momentum $l=+1$ are energetically favored for filling $ν=\frac{1}{2}+\frac{1}{2}$ and $\frac{1}{4}+\frac{1}{4}$. The degeneracy between states with $\pm l$ is li…
We investigate the spectrum of finite-length carbon nanotubes in the presence of onsite and nearest-neighbor superconducting pairing terms. A one-dimensional ladder-type lattice model is developed to explore the low-energy spectrum and the nature of the electronic states. We find that zero energy edge states can emerge in zigzag class carbon nanotubes as a combined effect of curvature-induced Dirac point shift and strong superconducting coupling between nearest-neighbor sites. The chiral symmetry of the system is exploited to define a winding number topological invariant. The associated topolo…
Electron pairing is a rare phenomenon appearing only in a few unique physical systems; e.g., superconductors and Kondo-correlated quantum dots. Here, we report on an unexpected, but robust, electron "pairing" in the integer quantum Hall effect (IQHE) regime. The pairing takes place within an interfering edge channel circulating in an electronic Fabry-Perot interferometer at a wide range of bulk filling factors, $2<ν _B<5$. The main observations are: (a) High visibility Aharonov-Bohm conductance oscillations with magnetic flux periodicity $Δϕ=φ_0/2=h/2e$ (instead of the ubiquitous $h/e$), with …
