No Arabic abstract
The energy spectrum of cake shape normal - superconducting systems is calculated by solving the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equation. We take into account the mismatch in the effective masses and Fermi energies of the normal and superconducting regions as well as the potential barrier at the interface. In the case of a perfect interface and without mismatch, the energy levels are treated by semi-classics. Analytical expressions for the density of states and its integral, the step function, are derived and compared with that obtained from exact numerics. We find a very good agreement between the two calculations. It is shown that the spectrum possesses an energy gap and the density of states is singular at the edge of the gap. The effect of the mismatch and the potential barrier on the gap is also investigated.
Electrons in a Dirac semimetals possess linear dispersion in all three spatial dimensions, and form part of a developing platform of novel quantum materials. Bi$_{1-x}$Sb$_x$ supports a three-dimensional Dirac cone at the Sb-induced band inversion point. Nanoscale phase-sensitive junction technology is used to induce superconductivity in this Dirac semimetal. Radio frequency irradiation experiments reveal a significant contribution of 4$pi$-periodic Andreev bound states to the supercurrent in Nb-Bi$_{0.97}$Sb$_{0.03}$-Nb Josephson junctions. The conditions for a substantial $4pi$ contribution to the supercurrent are favourable because of the Dirac cones topological protection against backscattering, providing very broad transmission resonances. The large g-factor of the Zeeman effect from a magnetic field applied in the plane of the junction, allows tuning of the Josephson junctions from 0 to $pi$ regimes.
We study a two-band model of fermions in a 1d chain with an antisymmetric hybridization that breaks inversion symmetry. We find that for certain values of its parameters, the $sp$-chain maps formally into a $p$-wave superconducting chain, the archetypical 1d system exhibiting Majorana fermions. The eigenspectra, including the existence of zero energy modes in the topological phase, agree for both models. The end states too share several similarities in both models, such as the behavior of the localization length, the non-trivial topological index and robustness to disorder. However, we show by mapping the $s$- and $p$- fermions to two copies of Majoranas, that the excitations in the ends of a finite $sp$ chain are indeed conventional fermions though endowed with protected topological properties. Our results are obtained by a scattering approach in a semi-infinite chain with an edge defect treated within the $T$-matrix approximation. We augment the analytical results with exact numerical diagonalization that allow us to extend our results to arbitrary parameters and also to disordered systems.
Despite plenty of room at the bottom, there is a limit to the miniaturization of every process. For charge transport this is realized by the coupling of single discrete energy levels at the atomic scale. Here, we demonstrate sequential tunneling between parity protected Yu-Shiba-Rusinov (YSR) states bound to magnetic impurities located on the superconducting tip and sample of a scanning tunneling microscope at 10 mK. We reduce the relaxation of the excited YSR state to the bare minimum and find an enhanced lifetime for single quasiparticle levels. Our work offers a way to characterize and to manipulate coupled superconducting bound states, such as Andreev levels, YSR states, or Majorana bound states.
Andreev bound states are an expression of quantum coherence between particles and holes in hybrid structures composed of superconducting and non-superconducting metallic parts. Their spectrum carries important information on the nature of the pairing, and determines the current in Josephson devices. Here I give a short review on Andreev bound states in systems involving superconductors and ferromagnets with strong spin-polarization. I show how the processes of spin-dependent scattering phase shifts and of triplet rotation influence Andreev point contact spectra, and provide a general framework for non-local Andreev phenomena in such structures in terms of coherence functions. Finally, I demonstrate how the concept of coherence functions cross-links wave-function and Green-function based theories, by showing that coherence functions fulfilling the equations of motion for quasiclassical Green functions can be used to derive a set of generalised Andreev equations.
The conductance in two-dimensional (2D) normal-superconducting (NS) systems is analyzed in the limit of strong magnetic fields when the transport is mediated by the electron-hole states bound to the sample edges and NS interface, i.e., in the Integer Quantum Hall Effect regime.The Andreev-type process of the conversion of the quasiparticle current into the superflow is shown to be strongly affected by the mixing of the edge states localized at the NS and insulating boundaries. The magnetoconductance in 2D NS structures is calculated for both quadratic and Dirac-like normal state spectra. Assuming a random scattering of the edge modes we analyze both the average value and fluctuations of conductance for an arbitrary number of conducting channels.