Superconducting spintronic tunnel diode.

Diodes are key elements for electronics, optics, and detection. Their evolution towards low dissipation electronics has seen the hybridization with superconductors and the realization of supercurrent diodes with zero resistance in only one direction. Here, we present the quasi-particle counterpart, a superconducting tunnel diode with zero conductance in only one direction. The direction-selective propagation of the charge has been obtained through the broken electron-hole symmetry induced by the spin selection of the ferromagnetic tunnel barrier: a EuS thin film separating a superconducting Al and a normal metal Cu layer. The Cu/EuS/Al tunnel junction achieves a large rectification (up to ∼40%) already for a small voltage bias (∼200 µV) thanks to the small energy scale of the system: the Al superconducting gap. With the help of an analytical theoretical model we can link the maximum rectification to the spin polarization (P) of the barrier and describe the quasi-ideal Shockley-diode behavior of the junction. This cryogenic spintronic rectifier is promising for the application in highly-sensitive radiation detection for which two different configurations are evaluated. In addition, the superconducting diode may pave the way for future low-dissipation and fast superconducting electronics.

Vectorial Control of the Spin-Orbit Interaction in Suspended InAs Nanowires.

Semiconductor nanowires featuring strong spin-orbit interactions (SOI), represent a promising platform for a broad range of novel technologies, such as spintronic applications or topological quantum computation. However, experimental studies into the nature and the orientation of the SOI vector in these wires remain limited despite being of upmost importance. Typical devices feature the nanowires placed on top of a substrate which modifies the SOI vector and spoils the intrinsic symmetries of the system. In this work, we report experimental results on suspended InAs nanowires, in which the wire symmetries are fully preserved and clearly visible in transport measurements. Using a vectorial magnet, the nontrivial evolution of weak antilocalization (WAL) is tracked through all 3D space, and both the spin-orbit length l SO and coherence length lφ are determined as a function of the magnetic field magnitude and direction. Studying the angular maps of the WAL signal, we demonstrate that the average SOI within the nanowire is isotropic and that our findings are consistent with a semiclassical quasi-1D model of WAL adapted to include the geometrical constraints of the nanostructure. Moreover, by acting on properly designed side gates, we apply an external electric field introducing an additional vectorial Rashba spin-orbit component whose strength can be controlled by external means. These results give important hints on the intrinsic nature of suspended nanowire and can be interesting for the field of spintronics as well as for the manipulation of Majorana bound states in devices based on hybrid semiconductors.

Magnetically-driven colossal supercurrent enhancement in InAs nanowire Josephson junctions.

The Josephson effect is a fundamental quantum phenomenon where a dissipationless supercurrent is introduced in a weak link between two superconducting electrodes by Andreev reflections. The physical details and topology of the junction drastically modify the properties of the supercurrent and a strong enhancement of the critical supercurrent is expected to occur when the topology of the junction allows an emergence of Majorana bound states. Here we report charge transport measurements in mesoscopic Josephson junctions formed by InAs nanowires and Ti/Al superconducting leads. Our main observation is a colossal enhancement of the critical supercurrent induced by an external magnetic field applied perpendicular to the substrate. This striking and anomalous supercurrent enhancement cannot be described by any known conventional phenomenon of Josephson junctions. We consider these results in the context of topological superconductivity, and show that the observed critical supercurrent enhancement is compatible with a magnetic field-induced topological transition.

The ω-SQUIPT as a tool to phase-engineer Josephson topological materials.

Multi-terminal superconducting Josephson junctions based on the proximity effect offer the opportunity to tailor non-trivial quantum states in nanoscale weak links. These structures can realize exotic topologies in several dimensions, for example, artificial topological superconductors that are able to support Majorana bound states, and pave the way to emerging quantum technologies and future quantum information schemes. Here we report the realization of a three-terminal Josephson interferometer based on a proximized nanosized weak link. Our tunnelling spectroscopy measurements reveal transitions between gapped (that is, insulating) and gapless (conducting) states that are controlled by the phase configuration of the three superconducting leads connected to the junction. We demonstrate the topological nature of these transitions: a gapless state necessarily occurs between two gapped states of different topological indices, in much the same way that the interface between two insulators of different topologies is necessarily conducting. The topological numbers that characterize such gapped states are given by superconducting phase windings over the two loops that form the Josephson interferometer. As these gapped states cannot be transformed to one another continuously without passing through a gapless condition, they are topologically protected. The same behaviour is found for all of the points of the weak link, confirming that this topology is a non-local property. Our observation of the gapless state is pivotal for enabling phase engineering of different and more sophisticated artificial topological materials.

Geometric reduction of dynamical nonlocality in nanoscale quantum circuits.

Nonlocality is a key feature discriminating quantum and classical physics. Quantum-interference phenomena, such as Young's double slit experiment, are one of the clearest manifestations of nonlocality, recently addressed as dynamical to specify its origin in the quantum equations of motion. It is well known that loss of dynamical nonlocality can occur due to (partial) collapse of the wavefunction due to a measurement, such as which-path detection. However, alternative mechanisms affecting dynamical nonlocality have hardly been considered, although of crucial importance in many schemes for quantum information processing. Here, we present a fundamentally different pathway of losing dynamical nonlocality, demonstrating that the detailed geometry of the detection scheme is crucial to preserve nonlocality. By means of a solid-state quantum-interference experiment we quantify this effect in a diffusive system. We show that interference is not only affected by decoherence, but also by a loss of dynamical nonlocality based on a local reduction of the number of quantum conduction channels of the interferometer. With our measurements and theoretical model we demonstrate that this mechanism is an intrinsic property of quantum dynamics. Understanding the geometrical constraints protecting nonlocality is crucial when designing quantum networks for quantum information processing.

Tunable doping of a metal with molecular spins.

The mutual interaction of localized magnetic moments and their interplay with itinerant conduction electrons in a solid are central to many phenomena in condensed-matter physics, including magnetic ordering and related many-body phenomena such as the Kondo effect, the Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yoshida interaction and carrier-induced ferromagnetism in diluted magnetic semiconductors. The strength and relative importance of these spin phenomena are determined by the magnitude and sign of the exchange interaction between the localized magnetic moments and also by the mean distance between them. Detailed studies of such systems require the ability to tune the mean distance between the localized magnetic moments, which is equivalent to being able to control the concentration of magnetic impurities in the host material. Here, we present a method for doping a gold film with localized magnetic moments that involves depositing a monolayer of a metal terpyridine complex onto the film. The metal ions in the complexes can be cobalt or zinc, and the concentration of magnetic impurities in the gold film can be controlled by varying the relative amounts of cobalt complexes (which carry a spin) and zinc complexes (which have zero spin). Kondo and weak localization measurements demonstrate that the magnetic impurity concentration can be systematically varied up to ∼800 ppm without any sign of inter-impurity interaction. Moreover, we find no evidence for the unwanted clustering that is often produced when using alternative methods.

Coherent detection of electron dephasing.

We show that an Aharonov-Bohm ring with asymmetric electron injection can act as a coherent detector of electron dephasing. The presence of a dephasing source in one of the two arms of a moderately-to-highly asymmetric ring changes the response of the system from total reflection to complete transmission while preserving the coherence of the electrons propagating from the ring, even for strong dephasing. We interpret this phenomenon as an implementation of an interaction-free measurement.

Tryptophan phosphorescence as a monitor of protein conformation in molecular films.

This report enquires on the potentiality of Trp phosphorescence for probing the conformational state of proteins deposited on solid dry films. Thin, amorphous protein films were fabricated with Apoazurin, alcohol dehydrogenase, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase and glutamate dehydrogenase the protein being incorporated into a DEAE-dextran matrix and deposited on quartz slides. The results, obtained with appositely constructed instrumentation, demonstrate that thanks to the low background radiation associated with long-lived, delayed emission phosphorescence can be readily detected down to single protein layer matrices and that both spectrum and lifetime are important indicators of the integrity of the protein globular fold. In fact, denaturation of the proteins by guanidinium hydrochloride or heat treatment points out that disruption of the native fold leads to a red shift and broadening of the spectrum with loss of vibronic structure, accompanied to considerably shorter-lived and more heterogeneous decay kinetics. It is also shown that the sensitivity of the phosphorescence lifetime towards the detection of altered, looser conformations of the polypeptide are remarkably enhanced on partial hydration of the sample.