No Arabic abstract
We show that some of the Josephson couplings of junctions arranged to form an inhomogeneous network undergo a non-perturbative renormalization provided that the networks connectivity is pertinently chosen. As a result, the zero-voltage Josephson critical currents $I_c$ turn out to be enhanced along directions selected by the networks topology. This renormalization effect is possible only on graphs whose adjacency matrix admits an hidden spectrum (i.e. a set of localized states disappearing in the thermodynamic limit). We provide a theoretical and experimental study of this effect by comparing the superconducting behavior of a comb-shaped Josephson junction network and a linear chain made with the same junctions: we show that the Josephson critical currents of the junctions located on the combs backbone are bigger than the ones of the junctions located on the chain. Our theoretical analysis, based on a discrete version of the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equation, leads to results which are in good quantitative agreement with experimental results.
WTe2, as a type-II Weyl semimetal, has 2D Fermi arcs on the (001) surface in the bulk and 1D helical edge states in its monolayer. These features have recently attracted wide attention in condensed matter physics. However, in the intermediate regime between the bulk and monolayer, the edge states have not been resolved owing to its closed band gap which makes the bulk states dominant. Here, we report the signatures of the edge superconductivity by superconducting quantum interference measurements in multilayer WTe2 Josephson junctions and we directly map the localized supercurrent. In thick WTe2 (~60 nm), the supercurrent is uniformly distributed by bulk states with symmetric Josephson effect ($left|I_c^+(B)right|=left|I_c^-(B)right|$). In thin WTe2 (10 nm), however, the supercurrent becomes confined to the edge and its width reaches up to 1.4 um and exhibits non-symmetric behavior $left|I_c^+(B)right| eq left|I_c^-(B)right|$. The ability to tune the edge domination by changing thickness and the edge superconductivity establishes WTe2 as a promising topological system with exotic quantum phases and a rich physics.
The computer simulations of fluctuational dynamics of the long overlap Josephson junction in the frame of the sine-Gordon model with a white noise source have been performed. It has been demonstrated that for the case of constant critical current density the mean life time (MLT) of superconductive state increases with increasing the junctions length and for homogeneous bias current distribution MLT tends to a constant, while for inhomogeneous current distribution MLT quickly decreases after approaching of a few Josephson lengths. The mean voltage versus junction length behaves inversely in comparison with MLT.
The superconducting-insulator transition is simulated in disordered networks of Josephson junctions with thermally activated Arrhenius-like resistive shunt. By solving the conductance matrix of the network, the transition is reproduced in different experimental conditions by tuning thickness, charge density and disorder degree. In particular, on increasing fluctuations of the parameters entering the Josephson coupling and the Coulomb energy of the junctions, the transition occurs for decreasing values of the critical temperature Tc and increasing values of the activation temperature To. The results of the simulation compare well with recent experiments where the mesoscopic fluctuations of the phase have been suggested as the mechanism underlying the phenomenon of emergent granularity in otherwise homogeneous films. The proposed approach is compared with the results obtained on TiN films and nanopatterned arrays of weak-links, where the superconductor-insulator transition is directly stimulated.
Measurements performed on superconductive networks shaped in the form of planar graphs display anomalously large currents when specific branches are biased. The temperature dependencies of these currents evidence that their origin is due to Cooper pair hopping through the Josephson junctions connecting the superconductive islands of the array. The experimental data are discussed in terms of a theoretical model which predicts, for the system under consideration, an inhomogeneous Cooper pair distribution on the superconductive islands of the network.
We report on a direct quantitative comparison between Thoms general catastrophe theory for systems presenting discontinuous behavior and experimental reality. It is demonstrated that the model provides a striking quantitative description of the measured experimental features of the complex nonlinear system generating the most appealing class of sensors and devices nowadays used in experiments, namely the Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices (SQUIDs). The parameter space of the SQUID system that we investigate displays all the features associated with a butterfly catastrophe, namely a catastrophe expected for a system having four control parameters and one state variable.