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Supercurrent through a single transverse mode in nanowire Josephson junctions

B. Zhang1,2,*, Z. Li1,*, H. Wu1, M. Pendharkar3,†, C. Dempsey3, J. S. Lee4,‡, S. D. Harrington5, C. J. Palmstrøm3,4,5, and S. M. Frolov1,§

  • 1Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260, USA
  • 2Department of Physics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA
  • 3Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA
  • 4California NanoSystems Institute, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA
  • 5Materials Department, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA

  • *These authors contributed equally to this work.
  • †Present address: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA.
  • ‡Present address: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, 37996, USA.
  • §Contact author: frolovsm@pitt.edu
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Phys. Rev. B 111, L161401 – Published 1 April, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.111.L161401

Abstract

Hybrid superconductor-semiconductor materials are fueling research in mesoscopic physics and quantum technology. Recently demonstrated smooth β-Sn superconductor shells, due to the increased induced gap, are expanding the available parameter space to new regimes. Fabricated on quasiballistic InSb nanowires, with careful control over the hybrid interface, Sn shells yield measurable switching currents even when nanowire resistance is of order 10kΩ. In this regime Cooper pairs travel through a purely one-dimensional quantum wire for at least part of their trajectory. Here, we focus on the evolution of proximity-induced supercurrent in magnetic field parallel to the nanowire. Long decay up to fields of 1T is observed. At the same time, the decay for higher occupied subbands is notably faster in some devices but not in others. We analyze this using a tight-binding numerical model that includes the Zeeman, orbital, and spin-orbit effects. When the first subband is spin polarized, we observe a dramatic suppression of supercurrent, which is also confirmed by the model and suggests an absence of significant triplet supercurrent generation.

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Phys. Rev. B 111, L161401– Published 1 April, 2025
  • Received 7 October 2023
  • Revised 19 July 2024
  • Accepted 18 February 2025
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