Induced Superconductivity and Engineered Josephson Tunneling Devices in Epitaxial (111)-Oriented Gold/Vanadium Heterostructures

Peng Wei; Ferhat Katmis; Cui Zu Chang; Jagadeesh S. Moodera

doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.6b00361

Induced Superconductivity and Engineered Josephson Tunneling Devices in Epitaxial (111)-Oriented Gold/Vanadium Heterostructures

Peng Wei, Ferhat Katmis, Cui Zu Chang, Jagadeesh S. Moodera

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

We report a unique experimental approach to create topological superconductors by inducing superconductivity into epitaxial metallic thin film with strong spin-orbit coupling. Utilizing molecular beam epitaxy technique under ultrahigh vacuum conditions, we are able to achieve (111) oriented single phase of gold (Au) thin film grown on a well-oriented vanadium (V) s-wave superconductor film with clean interface. We obtained atomically smooth Au thin films with thicknesses even down to below a nanometer showing near-ideal surface quality. The as-grown V/Au bilayer heterostructure exhibits superconducting transition at around 3.9 K. Clear Josephson tunneling and Andreev reflection are observed in S-I-S tunnel junctions fabricated from the epitaxial bilayers. The barrier thickness dependent tunneling and the associated subharmonic gap structures (SGS) confirmed the induced superconductivity in Au (111), paving the way for engineering thin film heterostructures based on p-wave superconductivity and nano devices exploiting Majorana Fermions for quantum computing.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	2714-2719
Number of pages	6
Journal	Nano letters
Volume	16
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.6b00361
State	Published - Apr 13 2016

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Bioengineering
General Chemistry
General Materials Science
Condensed Matter Physics
Mechanical Engineering

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10.1021/acs.nanolett.6b00361

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title = "Induced Superconductivity and Engineered Josephson Tunneling Devices in Epitaxial (111)-Oriented Gold/Vanadium Heterostructures",

abstract = "We report a unique experimental approach to create topological superconductors by inducing superconductivity into epitaxial metallic thin film with strong spin-orbit coupling. Utilizing molecular beam epitaxy technique under ultrahigh vacuum conditions, we are able to achieve (111) oriented single phase of gold (Au) thin film grown on a well-oriented vanadium (V) s-wave superconductor film with clean interface. We obtained atomically smooth Au thin films with thicknesses even down to below a nanometer showing near-ideal surface quality. The as-grown V/Au bilayer heterostructure exhibits superconducting transition at around 3.9 K. Clear Josephson tunneling and Andreev reflection are observed in S-I-S tunnel junctions fabricated from the epitaxial bilayers. The barrier thickness dependent tunneling and the associated subharmonic gap structures (SGS) confirmed the induced superconductivity in Au (111), paving the way for engineering thin film heterostructures based on p-wave superconductivity and nano devices exploiting Majorana Fermions for quantum computing.",

author = "Peng Wei and Ferhat Katmis and Chang, {Cui Zu} and Moodera, {Jagadeesh S.}",

note = "Funding Information: The authors acknowledge the enlightened discussions with P. A. Lee, A. C. Potter, and D. Lederman. P.W. and J.S.M. would like to acknowledge the major support from the John Templeton Foundation Grant No. 39944. P.W., F.K., C.-Z.C., and J.S.M. would like to acknowledge the support from National Science Foundation Grant DMR-1207469 and Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-13-1-0301. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2016 American Chemical Society.",

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doi = "10.1021/acs.nanolett.6b00361",

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AU - Moodera, Jagadeesh S.

N1 - Funding Information: The authors acknowledge the enlightened discussions with P. A. Lee, A. C. Potter, and D. Lederman. P.W. and J.S.M. would like to acknowledge the major support from the John Templeton Foundation Grant No. 39944. P.W., F.K., C.-Z.C., and J.S.M. would like to acknowledge the support from National Science Foundation Grant DMR-1207469 and Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-13-1-0301. Publisher Copyright: © 2016 American Chemical Society.

PY - 2016/4/13

Y1 - 2016/4/13

N2 - We report a unique experimental approach to create topological superconductors by inducing superconductivity into epitaxial metallic thin film with strong spin-orbit coupling. Utilizing molecular beam epitaxy technique under ultrahigh vacuum conditions, we are able to achieve (111) oriented single phase of gold (Au) thin film grown on a well-oriented vanadium (V) s-wave superconductor film with clean interface. We obtained atomically smooth Au thin films with thicknesses even down to below a nanometer showing near-ideal surface quality. The as-grown V/Au bilayer heterostructure exhibits superconducting transition at around 3.9 K. Clear Josephson tunneling and Andreev reflection are observed in S-I-S tunnel junctions fabricated from the epitaxial bilayers. The barrier thickness dependent tunneling and the associated subharmonic gap structures (SGS) confirmed the induced superconductivity in Au (111), paving the way for engineering thin film heterostructures based on p-wave superconductivity and nano devices exploiting Majorana Fermions for quantum computing.

AB - We report a unique experimental approach to create topological superconductors by inducing superconductivity into epitaxial metallic thin film with strong spin-orbit coupling. Utilizing molecular beam epitaxy technique under ultrahigh vacuum conditions, we are able to achieve (111) oriented single phase of gold (Au) thin film grown on a well-oriented vanadium (V) s-wave superconductor film with clean interface. We obtained atomically smooth Au thin films with thicknesses even down to below a nanometer showing near-ideal surface quality. The as-grown V/Au bilayer heterostructure exhibits superconducting transition at around 3.9 K. Clear Josephson tunneling and Andreev reflection are observed in S-I-S tunnel junctions fabricated from the epitaxial bilayers. The barrier thickness dependent tunneling and the associated subharmonic gap structures (SGS) confirmed the induced superconductivity in Au (111), paving the way for engineering thin film heterostructures based on p-wave superconductivity and nano devices exploiting Majorana Fermions for quantum computing.

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Induced Superconductivity and Engineered Josephson Tunneling Devices in Epitaxial (111)-Oriented Gold/Vanadium Heterostructures

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