Cargando…

Magnetically-driven colossal supercurrent enhancement in InAs nanowire Josephson junctions

The Josephson effect is a fundamental quantum phenomenon where a dissipationless supercurrent is introduced in a weak link between two superconducting electrodes by Andreev reflections. The physical details and topology of the junction drastically modify the properties of the supercurrent and a stro...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Tiira, J., Strambini, E., Amado, M., Roddaro, S., San-Jose, P., Aguado, R., Bergeret, F. S., Ercolani, D., Sorba, L., Giazotto, F.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5394342/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28401951
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms14984
_version_ 1783229715808518144
author Tiira, J.
Strambini, E.
Amado, M.
Roddaro, S.
San-Jose, P.
Aguado, R.
Bergeret, F. S.
Ercolani, D.
Sorba, L.
Giazotto, F.
author_facet Tiira, J.
Strambini, E.
Amado, M.
Roddaro, S.
San-Jose, P.
Aguado, R.
Bergeret, F. S.
Ercolani, D.
Sorba, L.
Giazotto, F.
author_sort Tiira, J.
collection PubMed
description The Josephson effect is a fundamental quantum phenomenon where a dissipationless supercurrent is introduced in a weak link between two superconducting electrodes by Andreev reflections. The physical details and topology of the junction drastically modify the properties of the supercurrent and a strong enhancement of the critical supercurrent is expected to occur when the topology of the junction allows an emergence of Majorana bound states. Here we report charge transport measurements in mesoscopic Josephson junctions formed by InAs nanowires and Ti/Al superconducting leads. Our main observation is a colossal enhancement of the critical supercurrent induced by an external magnetic field applied perpendicular to the substrate. This striking and anomalous supercurrent enhancement cannot be described by any known conventional phenomenon of Josephson junctions. We consider these results in the context of topological superconductivity, and show that the observed critical supercurrent enhancement is compatible with a magnetic field-induced topological transition.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-5394342
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2017
publisher Nature Publishing Group
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-53943422017-05-17 Magnetically-driven colossal supercurrent enhancement in InAs nanowire Josephson junctions Tiira, J. Strambini, E. Amado, M. Roddaro, S. San-Jose, P. Aguado, R. Bergeret, F. S. Ercolani, D. Sorba, L. Giazotto, F. Nat Commun Article The Josephson effect is a fundamental quantum phenomenon where a dissipationless supercurrent is introduced in a weak link between two superconducting electrodes by Andreev reflections. The physical details and topology of the junction drastically modify the properties of the supercurrent and a strong enhancement of the critical supercurrent is expected to occur when the topology of the junction allows an emergence of Majorana bound states. Here we report charge transport measurements in mesoscopic Josephson junctions formed by InAs nanowires and Ti/Al superconducting leads. Our main observation is a colossal enhancement of the critical supercurrent induced by an external magnetic field applied perpendicular to the substrate. This striking and anomalous supercurrent enhancement cannot be described by any known conventional phenomenon of Josephson junctions. We consider these results in the context of topological superconductivity, and show that the observed critical supercurrent enhancement is compatible with a magnetic field-induced topological transition. Nature Publishing Group 2017-04-12 /pmc/articles/PMC5394342/ /pubmed/28401951 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms14984 Text en Copyright © 2017, The Author(s) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
spellingShingle Article
Tiira, J.
Strambini, E.
Amado, M.
Roddaro, S.
San-Jose, P.
Aguado, R.
Bergeret, F. S.
Ercolani, D.
Sorba, L.
Giazotto, F.
Magnetically-driven colossal supercurrent enhancement in InAs nanowire Josephson junctions
title Magnetically-driven colossal supercurrent enhancement in InAs nanowire Josephson junctions
title_full Magnetically-driven colossal supercurrent enhancement in InAs nanowire Josephson junctions
title_fullStr Magnetically-driven colossal supercurrent enhancement in InAs nanowire Josephson junctions
title_full_unstemmed Magnetically-driven colossal supercurrent enhancement in InAs nanowire Josephson junctions
title_short Magnetically-driven colossal supercurrent enhancement in InAs nanowire Josephson junctions
title_sort magnetically-driven colossal supercurrent enhancement in inas nanowire josephson junctions
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5394342/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28401951
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms14984
work_keys_str_mv AT tiiraj magneticallydrivencolossalsupercurrentenhancementininasnanowirejosephsonjunctions
AT strambinie magneticallydrivencolossalsupercurrentenhancementininasnanowirejosephsonjunctions
AT amadom magneticallydrivencolossalsupercurrentenhancementininasnanowirejosephsonjunctions
AT roddaros magneticallydrivencolossalsupercurrentenhancementininasnanowirejosephsonjunctions
AT sanjosep magneticallydrivencolossalsupercurrentenhancementininasnanowirejosephsonjunctions
AT aguador magneticallydrivencolossalsupercurrentenhancementininasnanowirejosephsonjunctions
AT bergeretfs magneticallydrivencolossalsupercurrentenhancementininasnanowirejosephsonjunctions
AT ercolanid magneticallydrivencolossalsupercurrentenhancementininasnanowirejosephsonjunctions
AT sorbal magneticallydrivencolossalsupercurrentenhancementininasnanowirejosephsonjunctions
AT giazottof magneticallydrivencolossalsupercurrentenhancementininasnanowirejosephsonjunctions