No Arabic abstract
Complex cryogenics is still a strong limitation to the spread of quantum voltage standards and cryogen-free operation is then particularly interesting for Josephson standards. The main difficulties in He-free refrigeration are related to chip thermalization. We tested different solutions and interface materials between the chip and the cooling surface, to improve thermal conduction. Some junctions were chosen as elements to dissipate electrical power, while some others were operated as on-chip temperature sensors. Indium foil between chip and Cu support was demonstrated to provide a good thermal interface suitable for programmable voltage standard operation. However, thermal conduction can be further increased by thermal contacting the chip at the top. Finally, general physical constraints in vacuum thermal contacts are analyzed in terms of known properties of thermal interfaces at cryogenics temperatures.
We theoretically investigate heat transport in temperature-biased 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 flux through the junction displays coherent diffraction. Thermal transport is analyzed in three prototypical junction geometries highlighting their main differences. Notably, minimization of the Josephson coupling energy requires the quantum phase difference across the junction to undergo pi-slips in suitable intervals of magnetic flux. An experimental setup suited to detect thermal diffraction is proposed and analyzed.
We have studied a quantum Hamiltonian that models an array of ultrasmall Josephson junctions with short range Josephson couplings, $E_J$, and charging energies, $E_C$, due to the small capacitance of the junctions. We derive a new effective quantum spherical model for the array Hamiltonian. As an application we start by approximating the capacitance matrix by its self-capacitive limit and in the presence of an external uniform background of charges, $q_x$. In this limit we obtain the zero-temperature superconductor-insulator phase diagram, $E_J^{rm crit}(E_C,q_x)$, that improves upon previous theoretical results that used a mean field theory approximation. Next we obtain a closed-form expression for the conductivity of a square array, and derive a universal scaling relation valid about the zero--temperature quantum critical point. In the latter regime the energy scale is determined by temperature and we establish universal scaling forms for the frequency dependence of the conductivity.
We study the spin transport through a 1D quantum Ising-XY-Ising spin link that emulates a topological superconducting-normal-superconducting structure via Jordan-Wigner (JW) transformation. We calculate, both analytically and numerically, the spectrum of spin Andreev bound states and the resulting $mathbb{Z}_2$ fractional spin Josephson effect (JE) pertaining to the emerging Majorana JW fermions. Deep in the topological regime, we identify an effective time-reversal symmetry that leads to $mathbb{Z}_4$ fractional spin JE in the $textit{presence}$ of interactions within the junction. Moreover, we uncover a hidden inversion time-reversal symmetry that protects the $mathbb{Z}_4$ periodicity in chains with an odd number of spins, even in the $textit{absence}$ of interactions. We also analyze the entanglement between pairs of spins by evaluating the concurrence in the presence of spin current and highlight the effects of the JW Majorana states. We propose to use a microwave cavity setup for detecting the aforementioned JEs by dispersive readout methods and show that, surprisingly, the $mathbb{Z}_2$ periodicity is immune to $textit{any}$ local magnetic perturbations. Our results are relevant for a plethora of spin systems, such as trapped ions, photonic lattices, electron spins in quantum dots, or magnetic impurities on surfaces.
Majorana zero modes are quasiparticle states localized at the boundaries of topological superconductors that are expected to be ideal building blocks for fault-tolerant quantum computing. Several observations of zero-bias conductance peaks measured in tunneling spectroscopy above a critical magnetic field have been reported as experimental indications of Majorana zero modes in superconductor/semiconductor nanowires. On the other hand, two dimensional systems offer the alternative approach to confine Ma jorana channels within planar Josephson junctions, in which the phase difference {phi} between the superconducting leads represents an additional tuning knob predicted to drive the system into the topological phase at lower magnetic fields. Here, we report the observation of phase-dependent zero-bias conductance peaks measured by tunneling spectroscopy at the end of Josephson junctions realized on a InAs/Al heterostructure. Biasing the junction to {phi} ~ {pi} significantly reduces the critical field at which the zero-bias peak appears, with respect to {phi} = 0. The phase and magnetic field dependence of the zero-energy states is consistent with a model of Majorana zero modes in finite-size Josephson junctions. Besides providing experimental evidence of phase-tuned topological superconductivity, our devices are compatible with superconducting quantum electrodynamics architectures and scalable to complex geometries needed for topological quantum computing.
We study mesoscopic fluctuations and weak localization correction to the supercurrent in Josephson junctions with coherent diffusive electron dynamics in the normal part. Two kinds of junctions are considered: a chaotic dot coupled to superconductors by tunnel barriers and a diffusive junction with transparent normal--superconducting interfaces. The amplitude of current fluctuations and the weak localization correction to the average current are calculated as functions of the ratio between the superconducting gap and the electron dwell energy, temperature, and superconducting phase difference across the junction. Technically, fluctuations on top of the spatially inhomogeneous proximity effect in the normal region are described by the replicated version of the sigma-model. For the case of diffusive junctions with transparent interfaces, the magnitude of mesoscopic fluctuations of the critical current appears to be nearly 3 times larger than the prediction of the previous theory which did not take the proximity effect into account.