The energy of an Andreev bound state in a clean normal metal in contact with two superconductors disperses with the difference in the superconducting phase between the superconductors in much the same way as the energies of electrons in a one-dimensional crystal disperse with the crystal momentum k of the electrons. A normal metal with n superconductors maps onto a n − 1 dimensional crystal, each dimension corresponding to the phase difference between a specific pair of superconductors. The resulting band structure as a function of the phase differences in such ballistic devices has been proposed to have a topological nature with gapped regions characterized by different Chern numbers separated by regions where the gap in the quasiparticle spectrum closes. A similar complex evolution of the quasiparticle spectrum with has also been predicted for diffusive normal metals in contact with multiple superconductors. While the underlying topological description is different in diffusive devices, gapped regions of the band diagram associated with different topological indices are also separated by regions where the gap closes. Here, we show that the variation of the density of states at the Fermi energy of such a system can be directly probed by relatively simple conductance measurements, allowing rapid characterization of the energy spectrum.
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28 November 2022
Research Article|
December 01 2022
Probing the topological band structure of diffusive multiterminal Josephson junction devices with conductance measurements
Venkat Chandrasekhar
Venkat Chandrasekhar
a)
(Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Software, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing)
Department of Physics, Northwestern University
, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA
a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: v-chandrasekhar@northwestern.edu
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a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: v-chandrasekhar@northwestern.edu
Appl. Phys. Lett. 121, 222601 (2022)
Article history
Received:
September 13 2022
Accepted:
November 13 2022
Citation
Venkat Chandrasekhar; Probing the topological band structure of diffusive multiterminal Josephson junction devices with conductance measurements. Appl. Phys. Lett. 28 November 2022; 121 (22): 222601. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0125708
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