Spin-Orbit induced phase-shift in Bi<sub>2</sub>Se<sub>3</sub> Josephson junctions.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 30631078.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-018-08022-y and PMC identifier 6328588.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
The transmission of Cooper pairs between two weakly coupled superconductors produces a superfluid current and a phase difference; the celebrated Josephson effect. Because of time-reversal and parity symmetries, there is no Josephson current without a phase difference between two superconductors. Reciprocally, when those two symmetries are broken, an anomalous supercurrent can exist in the absence of phase bias or, equivalently, an anomalous phase shift φ<sub>0</sub> can exist in the absence of a superfluid current. We report on the observation of an anomalous phase shift φ<sub>0</sub> in hybrid Josephson junctions fabricated with the topological insulator Bi<sub>2</sub>Se<sub>3</sub> submitted to an in-plane magnetic field. This anomalous phase shift φ<sub>0</sub> is observed directly through measurements of the current-phase relationship in a Josephson interferometer. This result provides a direct measurement of the spin-orbit coupling strength and open new possibilities for phase-controlled Josephson devices made from materials with strong spin-orbit coupling.