Magnetically-driven colossal supercurrent enhancement in InAs nanowire Josephson junctions

The Josephson effect is a fundamental quantum phenomenon where a dissipationless supercurrent is introduced in a weak link between two superconducting electrodes by Andreev reflections. The physical details and topology of the junction drastically modify the properties of the supercurrent and a stro...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Tiira, J., Strambini, Elia, Roddaro, S., San-José, Pablo, Aguado, Roberto, Bergeret, F. Sebastian, Ercolani, D., Sorba, Lucia, Giazotto, Francesco
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2017
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/176886
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/176886
Access Level:acceso abierto
Descripción
Sumario:The Josephson effect is a fundamental quantum phenomenon where a dissipationless supercurrent is introduced in a weak link between two superconducting electrodes by Andreev reflections. The physical details and topology of the junction drastically modify the properties of the supercurrent and a strong enhancement of the critical supercurrent is expected to occur when the topology of the junction allows an emergence of Majorana bound states. Here we report charge transport measurements in mesoscopic Josephson junctions formed by InAs nanowires and Ti/Al superconducting leads. Our main observation is a colossal enhancement of the critical supercurrent induced by an external magnetic field applied perpendicular to the substrate. This striking and anomalous supercurrent enhancement cannot be described by any known conventional phenomenon of Josephson junctions. We consider these results in the context of topological superconductivity, and show that the observed critical supercurrent enhancement is compatible with a magnetic field-induced topological transition.