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We study a periodic arrangement of magnetic regions in a one-dimensional superconducting wire. Due to the local exchange field, each region supports Andreev bound states that hybridize forming Bloch bands in the subgap spectrum of what we call the Andreev crystal (AC). As an illustration, ACs with ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic alignment of the magnetic regions are considered. We relate the spectral asymmetry index of a spin-resolved Hamiltonian to the spin polarization and identify it as the observable that quantifies the closing and reopening of the excitation gap. In particular, antiferromagnetic ACs exhibit a sequence of gapped phases separated by gapless Dirac phase boundaries. Heterojunctions between antiferromagnetic ACs in neighboring phases support spin-polarized bound states at the interface. In a close analogy to the charge fractionalization in Dirac systems with a mass inversion, we find a fractionalization of the interface spin.
We present measurements of one-dimensional superconductor-semiconductor Coulomb islands, fabricated by gate confinement of a two-dimensional InAs heterostructure with an epitaxial Al layer. When tuned via electrostatic side gates to regimes without sub-gap states, Coulomb blockade reveals Cooper-pair mediated transport. When sub-gap states are present, Coulomb peak positions and heights oscillate in a correlated way with magnetic field and gate voltage, as predicted theoretically, with (anti) crossings in (parallel) transverse magnetic field indicating Rashba-type spin-orbit coupling. Overall results are consistent with a picture of overlapping Majorana zero modes in finite wires.
We experimentally investigate transport through the side junction between a niobium superconductor and the mesa edge of a two-dimensional system, realized in an InAs/GaSb double quantum well with band inversion. We demonstrate, that different transport regimes can be achieved by variation of the mesa step. We observe anomalous behavior of Andreev reflection within a finite low-bias interval, which is invariant for both transport regimes. We connect this behavior with the transition from retro- (at low biases) to specular (at high ones) Andreev reflection channels in an InAs/GaSb double quantum well with band inversion.
We study the surface Andreev bound states (SABSs) and quasiparticle tunneling spectroscopy of three-dimensional (3D) chiral superconductor by changing the surface (interface) misorientation angle of chiral superconductors. We obtain analytical formula of the energy dispersion of SABS for general pair potential when an original 4$times$4 BdG Hamiltonian can be reduced to be two 2$times$2 blocks. The resulting SABS for 3D chiral superconductors with pair potential given by $k_z(k_x + ik_y)^{ u}$ $({ u} = 1, 2)$ has a complicated energy dispersion due to the coexistence of both point and line nodes. We focus on the tunneling spectroscopy of this pairing in the presence of applied magnetic field which induces Doppler shift of quasiparticle spectra. By contrast to previous known Doppler effect in unconventional superconductors, zero bias conductance dip can change into zero bias conductance peak by external magnetic field. We also study SABSs and tunneling spectroscopy for possible pairing symmetries of UPt$_3$ . For this purpose, we extend a standard formula of tunneling conductance of unconventional superconductor junctions in order to treat spin-triplet non-unitary pairings. The magneto tunneling spectroscopy, i.e., tunneling spectroscopy in the presence of magnetic field, can serve as a guide to determine the pairing symmetry of this material.
Electromagnetic pulse propagation in a quantum metamaterial - artificial, globally quantum coherent optical medium - is numerically simulated. We show that for the quantum metamaterials based on superconducting quantum bits, initialized in an easily reachable factorized state, lasing in microwave range is triggered, accompanied by the chaotization of qubit states and generation of higher harmonics. These effects may provide a tool for characterization and optimization of quantum metamaterial prototypes.
One of the most promising approaches of generating spin- and energy-entangled electron pairs is splitting a Cooper pair into the metal through spatially separated terminals. Utilizing hybrid systems with the energy-dependent barriers at the superconductor-normal metal interfaces, one can achieve practically 100% efficiency outcome of entangled electrons. We investigate minimalistic one-dimensional model comprising a superconductor and two metallic leads and derive an expression for an electron-to-hole transmission probability as a measure of splitting efficiency. We find the conditions for achieving 100% efficiency and present analytical results for the differential conductance and differential noise.