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Supercurrent Interference in Few-Mode Nanowire Josephson Junctions

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...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2017-11, Vol.119 (18), p.187704-187704, Article 187704
Main Authors: Zuo, Kun, Mourik, Vincent, Szombati, Daniel B, Nijholt, Bas, van Woerkom, David J, Geresdi, Attila, Chen, Jun, Ostroukh, Viacheslav P, Akhmerov, Anton R, Plissard, Sebastién R, Car, Diana, Bakkers, Erik P A M, Pikulin, Dmitry I, Kouwenhoven, Leo P, Frolov, Sergey M
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Language:English
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Summary: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.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.187704