Topological Josephson heat engine
Please always quote using this URN: urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-230603
- Topological superconductors represent a fruitful playing ground for fundamental research as well as for potential applications in fault-tolerant quantum computing. Especially Josephson junctions based on topological superconductors remain intensely studied, both theoretically and experimentally. The characteristic property of these junctions is their 4-periodic ground-state fermion parity in the superconducting phase difference. Using such topological Josephson junctions, we introduce the concept of a topological Josephson heat engine. WeTopological superconductors represent a fruitful playing ground for fundamental research as well as for potential applications in fault-tolerant quantum computing. Especially Josephson junctions based on topological superconductors remain intensely studied, both theoretically and experimentally. The characteristic property of these junctions is their 4-periodic ground-state fermion parity in the superconducting phase difference. Using such topological Josephson junctions, we introduce the concept of a topological Josephson heat engine. We discuss how this engine can be implemented as a Josephson-Stirling cycle in topological superconductors, thereby illustrating the potential of the intriguing and fruitful marriage between topology and coherent thermodynamics. It is shown that the Josephson-Stirling cycle constitutes a highly versatile thermodynamic machine with different modes of operation controlled by the cycle temperatures. Finally, the thermodynamic cycle reflects the hallmark 4 pi -periodicity of topological Josephson junctions and could therefore be envisioned as a complementary approach to test topological superconductivity. Topological superconductors are expected to be a key component of quantum computing systems but reliably detecting their exotic properties is a challenge. Here, the authors propose a topological Josephson heat engine which uses thermodynamic effects to probe the 4 pi -periodic ground state of a topological superconductor.…
Author: | Benedikt Scharf, Alessandro Braggio, Elia Stambini, Francesco Giazotto, Ewelina M. Hankiewicz |
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URN: | urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-230603 |
Document Type: | Journal article |
Faculties: | Fakultät für Physik und Astronomie / Institut für Theoretische Physik und Astrophysik |
Language: | English |
Parent Title (English): | Communications Physics |
Year of Completion: | 2020 |
Volume: | 3 |
Article Number: | 198 |
Source: | Communications Physics (2020) 3:198. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42005-020-00463-6 |
DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s42005-020-00463-6 |
Dewey Decimal Classification: | 5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 53 Physik / 530 Physik |
Tag: | superconductivity |
Release Date: | 2021/04/22 |
Open-Access-Publikationsfonds / Förderzeitraum 2020 | |
Licence (German): | CC BY: Creative-Commons-Lizenz: Namensnennung 4.0 International |