Field-Effect Controllable Metallic Josephson Interferometer.

Paolucci, Federico; Vischi, Francesco; De Simoni, Giorgio; Guarcello, Claudio; Solinas, Paolo; Giazotto, Francesco · Nano Lett · 2019

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Gate-tunable Josephson junctions (JJs) are the backbone of superconducting classical and quantum computation. Typically, these systems exploit low-charge-concentration materials and present technological difficulties limiting their scalability. Surprisingly, electric field modulation of a supercurrent in metallic wires and JJs has been recently demonstrated. Here, we report the realization of titanium-based monolithic interferometers which allow tuning both JJs independently via voltage bias applied to capacitively coupled electrodes. Our experiments demonstrate full control of the amplitude of the switching current (<i>I</i><sub>s</sub>) and of the superconducting phase across the single JJ in a wide range of temperatures. Astoundingly, by gate-biasing a single junction, the maximum achievable total <i>I</i><sub>s</sub> is suppressed down to values much lower than the critical current of a single JJ. A theoretical model including gate-induced phase fluctuations on a single junction accounts for our experimental findings. This class of quantum interferometers could represent a breakthrough for several applications such as digital electronics, quantum computing, sensitive magnetometry, and single-photon detection.