Josephson φ0-junction in nanowire quantum dots

Journal article (2016)

Authors

D.B. Szombati QRD/Kouwenhoven Lab - QuTech Advanced Research Centre
S. Nadj-Perge QN/Quantum Transport
Diana Car Eindhoven University of Technology
Sébastien R. Plissard Université de Toulouse
E.P.A.M. Bakkers QN/Bakkers Lab , Eindhoven University of Technology
Leo P. Kouwenhoven QRD/Kouwenhoven Lab - QuTech Advanced Research Centre
Research Group
QRD/Kouwenhoven Lab (QuTech Advanced Research Centre) (TU Delft)
More Info
expand_more

Published Date

2016

Language

English

Reuse Rights

Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.

Faculty

QuTech Advanced Research Centre

Department

Qubit Research Division

Research Group

QRD/Kouwenhoven Lab

Abstract

The Josephson effect describes supercurrent flowing through a junction connecting two superconducting leads by a thin barrier. This current is driven by a superconducting phase difference φbetween the leads. In the presence of chiral and time-reversal symmetry of the Cooper pair tunnelling process, the current is strictly zero when φvanishes. Only if these underlying symmetries are broken can the supercurrent for φ= 0 be finite. This corresponds to a ground state of the junction being offset by a phase φ0, different from 0 or π. Here, we report such a Josephson φ0 -junction based on a nanowire quantum dot. We use a quantum interferometer device to investigate phase offsets and demonstrate that φ0 can be controlled by electrostatic gating. Our results may have far-reaching implications for superconducting flux- and phase-defined quantum bits as well as for exploring topological superconductivity in quantum dot systems.