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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Josephson current via spin and orbital states of a tunable double quantum dot

Rousan Debbarma1, Markus Aspegren1, Florinda Viñas Boström1,3, Sebastian Lehmann1, Kimberly Dick2, and Claes Thelander1,*

  • 1Division of Solid State Physics and NanoLund, Lund University, Box 118, S-221 00 Lund, Sweden
  • 2Center for Analysis and Synthesis, Lund University, Box 124, S-221 00 Lund, Sweden
  • 3Institut für Mathematische Physik, Technische Universität Braunschweig, D-38106 Braunschweig, Germany

  • *claes.thelander@ftf.lth.se

Phys. Rev. B 106, L180507 – Published 28 November, 2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.106.L180507

Abstract

Supercurrent transport is experimentally studied in a Josephson junction hosting a double quantum dot (DQD) with tunable symmetries. The QDs are parallel coupled to two superconducting contacts and can be tuned between strong interdot hybridization and a ring geometry where hybridization is suppressed. In both cases, we observe supercurrents when the two interacting orbitals are either empty or filled with spins, or a combination. However, when each QD hosts an unpaired spin, the supercurrent depends on the spin ground state. It is strongly suppressed for the ring geometry with a spin-triplet ground state at zero external magnetic field. By increasing the QD hybridization, we find that a supercurrent appears when the ground state changes to spin singlet. In general, supercurrents are suppressed in cases of spin-doublet ground state, but an exception occurs at orbital degeneracy when the system hosts one additional spin, as opposed to three, pointing to a broken particle-hole symmetry.

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