2017/06/30 by Kun Zuo, Vincent Mourik, Daniel B. Szombati +17 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Bound state #Condensed matter physics #Coupling (piping) #Josephson effect #MAJORANA #Magnetic field #Materials science #Nanowire #Physics #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #Quantum mechanics #Superconductivity #Supercurrent #Topological Materials and Phenomena #Zeeman effect #cond-mat.mes-hall
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.119.187704
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 187704 (2017) · Published version, ref 36 included here
openalex publication_date 2017/11/03 · arxiv created 2017/11/05 · arxiv updated 2017/11/08 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
Junctions created by coupling two superconductors via a semiconductor nanowire in the presence of high magnetic fields are the basis for the potential detection, fusion, and braiding of Majorana bound states. We study NbTiN/InSb nanowire/NbTiN Josephson junctions and find that the dependence of the critical current on the magnetic field exhibits gate-tunable nodes. This is in contrast with a well-known Fraunhofer effect, under which critical current nodes form a regular pattern with a period fixed by the junction area. Based on a realistic numerical model we conclude that the Zeeman effect induced by the magnetic field and the spin-orbit interaction in the nanowire are insufficient to explain the observed evolution of the Josephson effect. We find the interference between the few occupied one-dimensional modes in the nanowire to be the dominant mechanism responsible for the critical current behavior. We also report a strong suppression of critical currents at finite magnetic fields that should be taken into account when designing circuits based on Majorana bound states.