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Resolving quantum Cooper-pair tunneling in graphene Josephson junctions under near-infrared illumination

Wei Miao1, Jiaqiang Zhong1, Peizhan Li1, Qianjing He1,2, Zheng Wang1, Kangmin Zhou1, Jie Hu1, Yuan Ren1, Wen Zhang1 et al.

Jing Li1, Zezhao He3, Cui Yu3, Qingbin Liu3, Xuedong Gao3, Zhihong Feng3, and Shengcai Shi1

  • Contact author: weimiao@pmo.ac.cn
  • Contact author: yucui1@163.com
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Phys. Rev. Research 8, 013079 – Published 26 January, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/d38l-1g8r

Abstract

We report the observation of discrete supercurrent suppression steps arising from quantum Cooper-pair tunneling in superconductor-graphene-superconductor (SGS) Josephson junctions under near-infrared illumination. This quantum phenomenon remains robust against variations in photon energy, optical power, bath temperature, and dc bias. The nearly identical step spacing observed in SGS Josephson junctions with different graphene channel lengths indicates the dominant role of the superconductor-graphene interface in governing Cooper-pair transport. In contrast, the discrete steps vanish in the negative differential resistance regime, where quasiparticle transport dominates, confirming their microscopic Cooper-pair tunneling origin.

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Phys. Rev. Research 8, 013079– Published 26 January, 2026
  • Received 22 May 2025
  • Accepted 10 January 2026
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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.

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