2018/02/28 by Christoph Fleckenstein, C. Fleckenstein, Niccolò Traverso Ziani +3
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Amplitude #Andreev reflection #Condensed matter physics #Graphene research and applications #Observable #Pairing #Physics #Quantum #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #Quantum mechanics #Spin (aerodynamics) #Superconductivity #Symmetry (geometry) #Symmetry breaking #T-symmetry #Topological Materials and Phenomena #Topological insulator #cond-mat.supr-con
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.97.134523
published as Phys. Rev. B 97, 134523 (2018)
openalex publication_date 2018/04/30 · arxiv created 2018/05/02 · arxiv updated 2018/05/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Topological superconductors give rise to unconventional superconductivity, which is mainly characterized by the symmetry of the superconducting pairing amplitude. However, since the symmetry of the superconducting pairing amplitude is not directly observable, its experimental identification is rather difficult. In our work, we propose a system, composed of a quantum point contact and proximity-induced s-wave superconductivity at the helical edge of a two-dimensional topological insulator, for which we demonstrate the presence of odd-frequency pairing and its intimate connection to unambiguous transport signatures. Notably, our proposal requires no time-reversal symmetry breaking terms. We discover the domination of crossed Andreev reflection over electron cotunneling in a wide range of parameter space, which is a quite unusual transport regime.