- Physical Review Journals
All JournalsPhysics Magazine

Physical Review Research

Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Open Access

Hybrid superconducting-ferroelectric quantum memristor

Maria A. Badarne1,2, Emanuele G. Dalla Torre3, and Yachin Ivry1,2,4,5

  • 1Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 3200003, Israel
  • 2Solid State Institute, Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 3200003, Israel
  • 3Department of Physics, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel
  • 4Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
  • 5Grand Technion Energy Program, Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 3200003, Israel

PDF

Phys. Rev. Research 7, 043234 – Published 1 December, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/4746-w9cm

Abstract

The nontrivial integration of qubits with classical computing systems and the lack of quantum-memory devices remain a key obstacle in the development of quantum technologies. Here, we present a theoretical platform for hybrid quantum devices with memory characteristics. In these current-driven hybrid memristors, a ferroelectric layer serves as the tunneling barrier in a superconducting Josephson junction; thus, the potential barrier is history-dependent. A memory-integrated phase qubit and a Lagrangian description of the superconducting circuit are also presented, paving the way to highly functional, self-modulated Josephson-junction technologies.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

Supplemental Material

References (49)

  1. V. Garcia and M. Bibes, Ferroelectric tunnel junctions for information storage and processing, Nat. Commun. 5, 4289 (2014).
  2. S. C. Chang, A. Naeemi, D. E. Nikonov, and A. Gruverman, Theoretical approach to electroresistance in ferroelectric tunnel junctions, Phys. Rev. Appl. 7, 024005 (2017).
  3. C. Ma et al., Sub-nanosecond memristor based on ferroelectric tunnel junction, Nat. Commun. 11, 1439 (2020).
  4. Z. Wen and D. Wu, Ferroelectric tunnel junctions: Modulations on the potential barrier, Adv. Mater. 32, 1904123 (2020).
  5. A. Vettoliere et al., High-quality ferromagnetic Josephson junctions based on aluminum electrodes, Nanomaterials 12, 4155 (2022).
  6. H. G. Ahmad et al., Hybrid ferromagnetic transmon qubit: Circuit design, feasibility, and detection protocols for magnetic fluctuations, Phys. Rev. B 105, 214522 (2022).
  7. H. G. Ahmad et al., Phase dynamics of tunnel Al-based ferromagnetic Josephson junctions, Appl. Phys. Lett. 124, 232601 (2024).
  8. Y. Zhang, Y. Gu, P. Li, J. Hu, and K. Jiang, General theory of Josephson diodes, Phys. Rev. X 12, 041013 (2022).
  9. J. Díez-Mérida et al., Symmetry-broken Josephson junctions and superconducting diodes in magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene, Nat. Commun. 14, 2396 (2023).
  10. J. F. Steiner, L. Melischek, M. Trahms, K. J. Franke, and F. von Oppen, Diode effects in current-biased Josephson junctions, Phys. Rev. Lett. 130, 177002 (2023).
  11. A. Soori, Nonequilibrium Josephson diode effect in periodically driven SNS junctions, Phys. Scr. 98, 065917 (2023).
  12. B. Lu, S. Ikegaya, P. Burset, Y. Tanaka, and N. Nagaosa, Tunable Josephson diode effect on the surface of topological insulators, Phys. Rev. Lett. 131, 096001 (2023).
  13. H. Wu, Y. Wang, Y. Xu, P. K. Sivakumar, C. Pasco, U. Filippozzi, S. S. P. Parkin, Y. J. Zeng, T. McQueen, and M. N. Ali, The field-free Josephson diode in a van der Waals heterostructure, Nature (London) 604, 653 (2022).
  14. J. A. Blackburn, M. Cirillo, and N. Grønbech-Jensen, A survey of classical and quantum interpretations of experiments on Josephson junctions at very low temperatures, Phys. Rep. 611, 1 (2016).
  15. M. Suleiman, M. F. Sarott, M. Trassin, M. Badarne, and Y. Ivry, Nonvolatile voltage-tunable ferroelectric-superconducting quantum interference memory devices, Appl. Phys. Lett. 119, 112601 (2021).
  16. E. Piatti, Ionic gating in metallic superconductors: A brief review, Nano Express 2, 024003 (2021).
  17. G. A. Ummarino, E. Piatti, D. Daghero, R. S. Gonnelli, I. Y. Sklyadneva, E. V. Chulkov, and R. Heid, Proximity Eliashberg theory of electrostatic field-effect doping in superconducting films, Phys. Rev. B 96, 064509 (2017).
  18. E. Piatti, D. Daghero, G. A. Ummarino, F. Laviano, J. R. Nair, R. Cristiano, A. Casaburi, C. Portesi, A. Sola, and R. S. Gonnelli, Control of bulk superconductivity in a BCS superconductor by surface charge doping via electrochemical gating, Phys. Rev. B 95, 140501(R) (2017).
  19. A. Glezer Moshe, E. Farber, and G. Deutscher, Granular superconductors for high kinetic inductance and low loss quantum devices, Appl. Phys. Lett. 117, 062601 (2020).
  20. M. Kim, G. H. Park, J. Lee, J. H. Lee, J. Park, H. Lee, G. H. Lee, and H. J. Lee, Strong proximity Josephson coupling in vertically stacked NbSe2−graphene−NbSe2 van der Waals junctions, Nano Lett. 17, 6125 (2017).
  21. J. M. Martinis and K. Osborne, Superconducting qubits and the physics of Josephson junctions, in Proceedings of Les Houches (National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, CO, 2004).
  22. T. Nishimatsu, U. V. Waghmare, Y. Kawazoe, and D. Vanderbilt, Fast molecular-dynamics simulation for ferroelectric thin-film capacitors using a first-principles effective Hamiltonian, Phys. Rev. B: Condens. Matter Mater. Phys. 78, 104104 (2008).
  23. V. L. Ginzburg, Phase transitions in ferroelectrics (some historical remarks), Ferroelectrics 267, 23 (2002).
  24. P. Chandra and P. B. Littlewood, A Landau primer for ferroelectrics, in Physics of Ferroelectrics, edited by K. Rabe, C. Ahn, and J.-M. Triscone, Topics in Applied Physics, Vol. 105 (Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2007), pp. 69–116.
  25. M. Hoffmann, F. P. G. Fengler, M. Herzig, T. Mittmann, B. Max, U. Schroeder, R. Negrea, L. Pintilie, S. Slesazeck, and T. Mikolajick, Unveiling the double-well energy landscape in a ferroelectric layer, Nature (London) 565, 464 (2019).
  26. I. Rahmonov, N. Chtchelkatchev, and Y. Sjukrinov, The resonance properties of superconductor/ferroelectric/superconductor heterostructure, in 7th International Workshop on Numerical Modelling of High Temperature Superconductors (HTS 2020) (Université de Lorraine-GREEN, Nancy, France 2021).
  27. M. S. Richman, P. Rulis, and A. N. Caruso, Ferroelectric system dynamics simulated by a second-order Landau model, J. Appl. Phys. 122, 094101 (2017).
  28. T. Yang, B. Wang, J. M. Hu, and L. Q. Chen, Domain dynamics under ultrafast electric-field pulses, Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 107601 (2020).
  29. G. Schön and A. D. Zaikin, Quantum coherent effects, phase transitions, and the dissipative dynamics of ultra small tunnel junctions, Phys. Rep. 198, 237 (1990).
  30. A. O. Caldeira and A. J. Leggett, Influence of dissipation on quantum tunneling in macroscopic systems, Phys. Rev. Lett. 46, 211 (1981).
  31. D. E. McCumber, Effect of ac impedance on dc voltage-current characteristics of superconductor weak-link junctions, J. Appl. Phys. 39, 3113 (1968).
  32. W. C. Stewart, Current-voltage characteristics of Josephson junctions, Appl. Phys. Lett. 12, 277 (1968).
  33. J. T. Wang, F. Tang, M. Chinkhota, R. Tashakkori, and D. Bagayoko, A theoretical model for ferroelectric polarization-controlled superconductor devices, Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A 410, 304 (1998).
  34. G. A. Ummarino and D. Romanin, Theoretical explanation of electric field-induced superconductive critical temperature shifts in indium thin films, Phys. Status Solidi B: Basic Res. 257, 1900651 (2020).
  35. F. Paolucci, G. De Simoni, E. Strambini, P. Solinas, and F. Giazotto, Ultra-efficient superconducting Dayem bridge field-effect transistor, Nano Lett. 18, 4195 (2018).
  36. F. Paolucci, G. De Simoni, P. Solinas, E. Strambini, C. Puglia, N. Ligato, and F. Giazotto, Field-effect control of metallic superconducting systems, AVS Quantum Sci. 1, 016501 (2019).
  37. G. De Simoni, F. Paolucci, P. Solinas, E. Strambini, and F. Giazotto, Metallic supercurrent field-effect transistor, Nat. Nanotechnol. 13, 802 (2018).
  38. F. Paolucci, F. Vischi, G. De Simoni, C. Guarcello, P. Solinas, and F. Giazotto, Field-effect controllable metallic Josephson interferometer, Nano Lett. 19, 6263 (2019).
  39. V. Ambegaokar and A. Baratoff, Tunneling between superconductors, Phys. Rev. Lett. 10, 486 (1963).
  40. See Supplemental Material at http://link.aps.org/supplemental/10.1103/4746-w9cm for information on methods, additional simulation, and details.
  41. A. Grigoriev, M. M. Azad, and J. McCampbell, Ultrafast electrical measurements of polarization dynamics in ferroelectric thin-film capacitors, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 82, 124704 (2011).
  42. D. Monroe, M. Alidoust, and I. Žutić, Tunable planar Josephson junctions driven by time-dependent spin-orbit coupling, Phys. Rev. Appl. 18, L031001 (2022).
  43. F. Wen, J. Shabani, and E. Tutuc, Josephson junction field-effect transistors for Boolean logic cryogenic applications, IEEE Trans. Electron Devices 66, 5367 (2019).
  44. I. Holzman and Y. Ivry, On-chip integrable planar NbN nanoSQUID with broad temperature and magnetic-field operation range, AIP Adv. 9, 105028 (2019).
  45. P. Winkel, K. Borisov, L. Grünhaupt, D. Rieger, M. Spiecker, F. Valenti, A. V. Ustinov, W. Wernsdorfer, and I. M. Pop, Implementation of a transmon qubit using superconducting granular aluminum, Phys. Rev. X 10, 031032 (2020).
  46. R. Li, D. Xu, C. Du, Q. Ma, F. Zhang, X. Liang, D. Wang, Z. Shi, W. Liu, and D. Zhou, Giant dielectric tunability in ferroelectric ceramics with ultralow loss by ion substitution design, Nat. Commun. 15, 3754 (2024).
  47. Y. Gao, A. Weston, V. Enaldiev, X. Li, W. Wang, J. E. Nunn, I. Soltero, E. G. Castanon, A. Carl, and H. De Latour, Tunnel junctions based on interfacial two dimensional ferroelectrics, Nat. Commun. 15, 4449 (2024).
  48. I. M. Pop, I. Protopopov, F. Lecocq, Z. Peng, B. Pannetier, O. Buisson, and W. Guichard, Measurement of the effect of quantum phase slips in a Josephson junction chain, Nat. Phys. 6, 589 (2010).
  49. T. Liang, G. Zhang, W. Wu, Y. Wang, L. Zhang, H. Jin, X. Zhang, L. Ying, and B. Gao, Fabrication and characterization of molybdenum thin-film resistor for superconducting quantum devices, IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond. 30, 7500304 (2020).

Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. Research 7, 043234– Published 1 December, 2025
  • Received 19 August 2024
  • Revised 25 April 2025
  • Accepted 3 November 2025
Crossmark - Check for updates button
Creative Commons Logo

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation