No Arabic abstract
We investigate the Josephson effect in one triple-terminal junction with embedded parallel-coupled double quantum dots. It is found that the inter-superconductor supercurrent has opportunities to oscillate in $4pi$ period, with the adjustment of the phase differences among the superconductors. What is notable is that such a result is robust and independent of fermion parities, intradot Coulomb strength, and the dot-superconductor coupling manner. By introducing the concept of spinful many-particle Majorana modes, we present the analytical definition of the Majorana operator via superposing electron and hole operators. It can be believed that this work provide a simple but feasible proposal for the realization of Majorana modes in a nonmagnetic system.
With the help of the numerical renormalization group method, we theoretically investigate the Josephson phase transition in a parallel junction with one quantum dot embedded in each arm. It is found that in the cases of uniform dot levels and dot-superconductor couplings, the Josephson phase transition will be suppressed. This is manifested as the fact that with the enhancement of the electron correlation, the supercurrent only arrives at its $pi$ phase but cannot enter its $pi$ phase. Moreover, when the dot levels are detuned, one $pi$-phase island appears in the phase diagram. Such a result is attributed to the nonlocal motion of the Cooper pair in this structure. We believe that this work can be helpful in understanding the Josephson phase transition modified by the electron correlation and quantum interference.
The Josephson effect describes supercurrent flowing through a junction connecting two superconducting leads by a thin barrier [1]. This current is driven by a superconducting phase difference $phi$ between the leads. In the presence of chiral and time reversal symmetry of the Cooper pair tunneling process [2] the current is strictly zero when $phi$ vanishes. Only if these underlying symmetries are broken the supercurrent for $phi=0$ may be finite [3-5]. This corresponds to a ground state of the junction being offset by a phase $phi_{0}$, different from 0 or $pi$. Here, we report such a Josephson $phi_{0}$-junction based on a nanowire quantum dot. We use a quantum interferometer device in order to investigate phase offsets and demonstrate that $phi_{0}$ can be controlled by electrostatic gating. Our results have possible far reaching implications for superconducting flux and phase defined quantum bits as well as for exploring topological superconductivity in quantum dot systems.
One Majorana doublet can be realized at each end of the time-reversal-invariant Majorana nanowires. We investigate the Josephson effect in the Majorana-doublet-presented junction modified by different inter-doublet coupling manners. It is found that when the Majorana doublets couple indirectly via a non-magnetic quantum dot, only the normal Josephson effects occur, and the fermion parity in the system just affects the current direction and amplitude. However, in the odd-parity case, applying finite magnetic field on the quantum dot can induce the appearance of the fractional Josephson effect. Next, when the direct and indirect couplings between the Majorana doublets coexist, no fractional Josephson effect takes place, regardless of finite magnetic field on the quantum dot. Instead, the $pi$-period current has an opportunity to appear in some special cases. All the results are clarified by analyzing the influence of the fermion occupation in the quantum dot on the parity conservation in the whole system. We ascertain that this work will be helpful for describing the dot-assisted Josephson effect between the Majorana doublets.
Josephson junctions with three or more superconducting leads have been predicted to exhibit topological effects in the presence of few conducting modes within the interstitial normal material. Such behavior, of relevance for topologically-protected quantum bits, would lead to specific transport features measured between terminals, with topological phase transitions occurring as a function of phase and voltage bias. Although conventional, two-terminal Josephson junctions have been studied extensively, multi-terminal devices have received relatively little attention to date. Motivated in part by the possibility to ultimately observe topological phenomena in multi-terminal Josephson devices, as well as their potential for coupling gatemon qubits, here we describe the superconducting features of a top-gated mesoscopic three-terminal Josephson device. The device is based on an InAs two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) proximitized by epitaxial aluminum. We map out the transport properties of the device as a function of bias currents, top gate voltage and magnetic field. We find a very good agreement between the zero-field experimental phase diagram and a resistively and capacitively shunted junction (RCSJ) computational model.
Serial double quantum dots created in semiconductor nanostructures provide a versatile platform for investigating two-electron spin quantum states, which can be tuned by electrostatic gating and an external magnetic field. In this work, we directly measure the supercurrent reversal between adjacent charge states of an InAs nanowire double quantum dot with superconducting leads, in good agreement with theoretical models. In the even charge parity sector, we observe a supercurrent blockade with increasing magnetic field, corresponding to the spin singlet to triplet transition. Our results demonstrate a direct spin to supercurrent conversion, the superconducting equivalent of the Pauli spin blockade. This effect can be exploited in hybrid quantum architectures coupling the quantum states of spin systems and superconducting circuits.