Josephson Supercurrent through the Topological Surface States of Strained Bulk HgTe
Please always quote using this URN: urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-129834
- Strained bulk HgTe is a three-dimensional topological insulator, whose surface electrons have a high mobility (~ 30 000 cm\(^2\)=Vs), while its bulk is effectively free of mobile charge carriers. These properties enable a study of transport through its unconventional surface states without being hindered by a parallel bulk conductance. Here, we show transport experiments on HgTe-based Josephson junctions to investigate the appearance of the predicted Majorana states at the interface between a topological insulator and a superconductor.Strained bulk HgTe is a three-dimensional topological insulator, whose surface electrons have a high mobility (~ 30 000 cm\(^2\)=Vs), while its bulk is effectively free of mobile charge carriers. These properties enable a study of transport through its unconventional surface states without being hindered by a parallel bulk conductance. Here, we show transport experiments on HgTe-based Josephson junctions to investigate the appearance of the predicted Majorana states at the interface between a topological insulator and a superconductor. Interestingly, we observe a dissipationless supercurrent flow through the topological surface states of HgTe. The current-voltage characteristics are hysteretic at temperatures below 1 K, with critical supercurrents of several microamperes. Moreover, we observe a magnetic-field-induced Fraunhofer pattern of the critical supercurrent, indicating a dominant \(2\pi\)-periodic Josephson effect in the unconventional surface states. Our results show that strained bulk HgTe is a promising material system to get a better understanding of the Josephson effect in topological surface states, and to search for the manifestation of zero-energy Majorana states in transport experiments.…
Author: | Jeroen B. Oostinga, Luis Maier, Peter Schüffelgen, Daniel Knott, Christopher Ames, Christoph Brüne, Grigory Tkachov, Hartmut Buhmann, Laurens W. Molenkamp |
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URN: | urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-129834 |
Document Type: | Journal article |
Faculties: | Fakultät für Physik und Astronomie / Physikalisches Institut |
Language: | English |
Parent Title (English): | Physical Review X |
Year of Completion: | 2013 |
Volume: | 3 |
Issue: | 021007 |
Source: | Physical Review X 3, 021007 (2013) |
DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.3.021007 |
Dewey Decimal Classification: | 5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 53 Physik / 530 Physik |
Tag: | mesoscopics; superconductivity; topological insulators |
Release Date: | 2016/07/01 |
EU-Project number / Contract (GA) number: | 267436 |
OpenAIRE: | OpenAIRE |
Licence (German): | CC BY: Creative-Commons-Lizenz: Namensnennung |