Signatures of a topological phase transition in a planar Josephson junction
A. Banerjee, O. Lesser, M. A. Rahman, H. -R. Wang, M. -R. Li, A. Kringhøj, A. M. Whiticar, A. C. C. Drachmann, C. Thomas, T. Wang, M. J. Manfra, E. Berg, Y. Ore… 展开作者
A. Banerjee, O. Lesser, M. A. Rahman, H. -R. Wang, M. -R. Li, A. Kringhøj, A. M. Whiticar, A. C. C. Drachmann, C. Thomas, T. Wang, M. J. Manfra, E. Berg, Y. Oreg, Ady Stern, C. M. Marcus
A growing body of work suggests that planar Josephson junctions fabricated using superconducting hybrid materials provide a highly controllable route toward one-dimensional topological superconductivity. Among the experimental controls are in-plane magnetic field, phase difference across the junction, and carrier density set by electrostatic gate voltages. Here, we investigate planar Josephson junctions with an improved design based on an epitaxial InAs/Al heterostructure, embedded in a superconducting loop, probed with integrated quantum point contacts (QPCs) at both ends of the junction. For particular ranges of in-plane field and gate voltages, a closing and reopening of the superconducting gap is observed, along with a zero-bias conductance peak (ZBCP) that appears upon reopening of the gap. Consistency with a simple theoretical model supports the interpretation of a topological phase transition. While gap closings and reopenings generally occurred together at the two ends of the junction, the height, shape, and even presence of ZBCPs typically differed between the ends, presumably due to disorder and variation of couplings to local probes.
We show that the time reversal symmetry inevitably breaks in a superconducting Josephson junction formed by two superconductors with different pairing symmetries dubbed as i-Josephson junction. While the leading conventional Josephson coupling vanishes in such an i-Josephson junction, the second order coupling from tunneling always generates chiral superconductivity orders with broken time reversal symmetry. Josephson frequency in the i-junction is doubled, namely $ω= 4eV /h$. The result provides a way to engineer topological superconductivity such as the d + id' -wave superconducting state ch…
We perform extensive analysis of graphene Josephson junctions embedded in microwave circuits. By comparing a diffusive junction at 15 mK with a ballistic one at 15 mK and 1 K, we are able to reconstruct the current-phase relation.
Josephson junctions and SQUIDs with graphene or other 2D materials as the weak link between superconductors have become a hot topic of research in recent years, with respect to both fundamental physics and potential applications. We have previously reported ultra-wide Josephson junctions (up to 80 μm wide) based on CVD graphene where the critical current was found to be uniformly distributed in the direction perpendicular to the current. In this paper, we demonstrate that the unusually large Josephson penetration depth λ_J that this corresponds to is enabled by the unique geometric structure o…
We propose a realization of the superconducting diode effect in flux biased superconducting circuits of Josephson junctions. So far the observation of the superconducting diode effect has been limited to rather exotic material platforms. In theoretical proposals, it relied on a non-sinusoidal form of the current phase relation of Josephson junctions. Here, we show how the diode effect can be engineered in superconducting circuits without any such requirements. The only necessary ingredients are standard sinusoidal Josephson junctions and flux bias lines that are readily available in scalable i…
We present a detailed study of photonic heat transport across a Josephson junction coupled to two arbitrary linear circuits having different temperatures. First, we consider the linear approximation, in which a nonlinear Josephson potential is replaced by a quadratic one and the junction acts as an inductor. Afterwards, we discuss the effects of junction anharmonicity. We separately consider the weak-coupling limit, in which the Bloch band structure of the junction energy spectrum plays an important role, and the opposite strong-coupling regime. We apply our general results to two specific mod…
Topological Josephson junctions (JJs), which contain Majorana bound states, are expected to exhibit 4$π$-periodic current-phase relation, thereby resulting in doubled Shapiro steps under microwave irradiation. We performed numerical calculations of dynamical properties of topological JJs using a modified resistively and capacitively shunted junction model and extensively investigated the progressive evolution of Shapiro steps as a function of the junction parameters and microwave power and frequency. Our calculation results indicate that the suppression of odd-integer Shapiro steps, i.e., evid…
One of the consequences of Cooper pairs having a finite momentum in the interlayer of a Josephson junction, is $π$-junction behavior. The finite momentum can either be due to an exchange field in ferromagnetic Josephson junctions, or due to the Zeeman effect. Here, we report the observation of Zeeman effect induced 0-$π$ transitions in Bi$_{1-x}$Sb$_x$, 3D Dirac semimetal-based Josephson junctions. The large g-factor of the Zeeman effect from a magnetic field applied in the plane of the junction allows tuning of the Josephson junctions from 0- to $π$- regimes. This is revealed by sign changes …
We study the thermodynamic properties of topological Josephson junctions using a quantum spin Hall (QSH) insulator-based junction as an example. In particular, we propose that phase-dependent measurements of the heat capacity offer an alternative to Josephson-current measurements to demonstrate key topological features. Even in an equilibrium situation, where the fermion parity is not conserved, the heat capacity exhibits a pronounced double peak in its phase dependence as a signature of the protected zero-energy crossing in the Andreev spectrum. This double-peak feature is robust against chan…
We discuss heat transport in thermally-biased long Josephson tunnel junctions in the presence of an in-plane magnetic field. In full analogy with the Josephson critical current, the phase-dependent component of the heat current through the junction displays coherent diffraction. Thermal transport is analyzed as a function of both the length and the damping of the junction, highlighting deviations from the standard Fraunhofer pattern characteristic of short junctions. The heat current diffraction patterns show features strongly related to the formation and penetration of Josephson vortices, i.e…
Superconducting circuits incorporating Josephson tunnel junctions are widely used for fundamental research as well as for applications in fields such as quantum information and magnetometry. The quantum coherent nature of Josephson junctions makes them especially suitable for metrology applications. Josephson junctions suffice to form two sides of the quantum metrology triangle, relating frequency to either voltage or current, but not its base, which directly links voltage to current. We propose a five Josephson tunnel junction circuit in which simultaneous pumping of flux and charge results i…
Josephson junctions with graphene as the weak link between superconductors have been intensely studied in recent years, with respect to both fundamental physics and potential applications. However, most of the previous work was based on mechanically exfoliated graphene, which is not compatible with mass production. Here we present our research using graphene grown by chemical vapour deposition (CVD) as the weak link of Josephson junctions. We demonstrate that CVD-graphene-based Josephson junctions with Nb electrodes can work effectively without any thermal hysteresis from 1.5 K down to a base …
We consider a planar SIS-type Josephson junction between diffusive superconductors (S) through an insulating tunnel interface (I). We construct fully self-consistent perturbation theory with respect to the interface conductance. As a result, we find correction to the first Josephson harmonic and calculate the second Josephson harmonic. At arbitrary temperatures, we correct previous results for the nonsinusoidal current-phase relation in Josephson tunnel junctions, which were obtained with the help of conjectured form of solution. Our perturbation theory also describes the difference between th…
We investigate the coupling between ferromagnet and superconducting phase dynamics in superconductor-ferromagnet-superconductor Josephson junction. The current-voltage characteristics of the junction demonstrate a pattern of subharmonic current steps which forms a devil's staircase structure. We show that a width of the steps becomes maximal at ferromagnetic resonance. Moreover, we demonstrate that the structure of the steps and their widths can be tuned by changing the frequency of the external magnetic field, ratio of Josephson to magnetic energy, Gilbert damping and the junction size.
Existence of distinctive correlation between the thermal conductance and the Josephson current across a 1-D topological Josephson junction (T-JJ) is established and an expression connecting the two is derived in the short junction limit. It is shown that the three terminal T-JJ provides us with an ideal set-up for exploiting the distinctive correlations which aid in identifying hallmarks of Majorana bound state localized at the junction. Our approach combines information form sub-gap Cooper pair transport and transport of above-gap thermally excited quasiparticle which is complementary to the …
The $4π$ Josephson Effect is a distinguishing feature of a topological Josephson junction. However, stringent conditions make it hard to observe in experiments. Here we numerically study the transient transport properties in a topological Josephson junction. We show that the $4π$ Josephson current can be sustained for a significant time (around several $μs$ with suitable conditions). Furthermore, we compare the behaviors of Josephson current in different conditions, identifying three main regimes: First, when both the superconducting wires of the Josephson junction lie in the topologically non…
We report an experimental study on the tuning of supercurrent in a ballistic graphene-based Josephson junction by applying a control voltage to a transverse normal channel. In this four-terminal geometry, the control voltage changes the occupation of Andreev states in the Josephson junction, thereby tuning the magnitude of the supercurrent. As a function of gate voltage, we find two different regimes characterized by a double-step distribution and a hot-electron distribution, respectively. Our work opens new opportunities to design highly controllable Josephson junctions for tunable supercondu…
We report on half-integer Shapiro steps observed in an InAs nanowire Josephson junction. We observed the Shapiro steps of the short ballistic InAs nanowire Josephson junction and found anomalous half-integer steps in addition to the conventional integer steps. The half-integer steps disappear as the temperature increases or transmission of the junction decreases. These experimental results agree closely with numerical calculation of the Shapiro response for the skewed current phase relation in a short ballistic Josephson junction.
Quasiparticle poisoning and diabatic transitions may significantly narrow the window for the experimental observation of the $4π$-periodic $dc$ Josephson effect predicted for topological Josephson junctions. Here, we show that switching current measurements provide accessible and robust signatures for topological superconductivity which persist in the presence of quasiparticle poisoning processes. Such measurements provide access to the phase-dependent subgap spectrum and Josephson currents of the topological junction when incorporating it into an asymmetric SQUID together with a conventional …
The response of superconductor-normal-metal-superconductor junctions to magnetic field is complicated and non-universal because all trajectories contributing to supercurrent have a different effective area, and therefore acquire arbitrary magnetic phases. We design an hourglass-shaped Josephson junction where due to the junction symmetry the magnetic phase of every trajectory is approximately equal. By doing so we are able to increase a critical field of the Josephson junction to many flux quanta per junction area. We then analyse how breaking the symmetry condition increases the sensitivity o…
We present direct measurements of the current-phase relation for lateral Josephson junctions with a graphene barrier, obtained by a phase-sensitive SQUID interferometry technique. We find that the current-phase relation is forward skewed with respect to the commonly observed sinusoidal behavior for short junctions in the quasi-ballistic transport regime, consistent with predictions for the behavior of Dirac fermions in a Josephson junction. The skewness increases with critical current and decreases sharply with increasing temperature.
We theoretically study a Josephson junction formed by two finite-size $s$-wave SCs on a topological insulator under a magnetic field. At certain conditions, the junction hosts the chiral Majorana modes enclosing the two finite-size SCs. The interplay of the extended chiral Majorana modes and the states inside the junction can results in nontrivial topological effects such as the $2n π$ fractional AC Josephson effects predicted in Ref.~\cite{ChoiSim} We show that the $2n π$ fractional AC Josephson effects can occur in a realistic situation, such as the presence of the midgap states, without req…
The concept of coupled robust field induced Josephson junctions placed in complex electromagnetic environments is presented. Such structures are made by polarization of superconducting nanostructures by magnetic fields. The methodology of modeling of structures and possible implementations is introduced. The presented scheme is expected to implement and describe both classical and quantum computers with use of Josephson junction and artificial evolution. In such cases one can obtain unexpected new topologies of circuits that can contribute in enhancement of known and used circuit schemes. Furt…
