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Applied Physics Letters

Control of supercurrent in a self-assembled InAs quantum dot Josephson junction by electrical tuning of level overlaps

Yasushi Kanai, Russell Deacon, A. Oiwa, Kenta Yoshida, Kenji Shibata, Kazuhiko Hirakawa, Seigo Tarucha

Published May 14, 2012• 4 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We study supercurrent in a single InAs self-assembled quantum dot contacted with superconducting leads and demonstrate that for regions where energy level spacing and charging energy are smaller than tunnel coupling, the supercurrent may be controlled by the degree of overlaps between energy levels, which is tunable using a side-gate electrode. In such regions, we find strong correlation between the supercurrent and the normal state conductance when the device parameters are tuned. In a Kondo regime with low Kondo temperature, we find that the scaling of the supercurrent and normal state conductance varies when the side-gate voltage is changed.

DOI
10.1063/1.4719072

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We study supercurrent in a single InAs self-assembled quantum dot contacted with superconducting leads and demonstrate that for regions where energy level spacing and charging energy are smaller than tunnel coupling, the supercurrent may be controlled by the degree of overlaps between energy levels, which is tunable using a side-gate electrode. In such regions, we find strong correlation between the supercurrent and the normal state conductance when the device parameters are tuned. In a Kondo regime with low Kondo temperature, we find that the scaling of the supercurrent and normal state conductance varies when the side-gate voltage is changed.
We report a first direct observation of proximity supercurrent in a single InAs self-assembled quantum dot coupled to superconducting electrodes. We utilize large SAQDs with strong dot-lead coupling allowing sufficient overlap of quantized state that charge fluctuation in the dot may exceed one electron. Although the charging energy is larger than the superconductivity gap, Δ, the voltage characteristic measured in the current-driven four-terminal geometry signifies a supercurrent flow though the dot. The observed critical current is of the order of 10 pA, and much smaller than expected from theory. This current also shows the parity effect with the number of electrons in the dot, suggesting that the singlet correlation impedes the Cooper pair tunneling.
The authors have fabricated superconductor-quantum dot-superconductor (SC-QD-SC) junctions by using SC aluminum electrodes with narrow gaps laterally contacting a single self-assembled InAs QD. The fabricated junctions exhibited clear Coulomb staircases and Coulomb oscillations at 40mK. Furthermore, clear suppression in conductance was observed for the source-drain voltage, ∣VSD∣<2Δ∕e, where Δ is the SC energy gap of Al. The absence of Josephson current that flows through QDs is due to the strong Coulomb interaction and non-negligible thermal fluctuation in our measurement system.
We report the transport measurements on the InAs self-assembled quantum dots (SAQDs) which have a unique structural zero-dimensionality, coupled to a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID). Owing to the SQUID geometry, we directly observe a π phase shift in the current phase relation and the negative supercurrent indicating π junction behavior by not only tuning the energy level of SAQD by back-gate but also controlling the coupling between SAQD and electrodes by side-gate. Our results inspire the future quantum information devices which can link optical, spin, and superconducting state.
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 s ) 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 s 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.
Abstract A nanometre-scale superconducting electrode connected to a reservoir via a Josephson junction constitutes an artificial two-level electronic system: a single-Cooper-pair box. The two levels consist of charge states (differing by 2e, where e is the electronic charge) that are coupled by tunnelling of Cooper pairs through the junction. Although the two-level system is macroscopic, containing a large number of electrons, the two charge states can be coherently superposed1, 2, 3, 4. The Cooper-pair box has therefore been suggested5, 6, 7 as a candidate for a quantum bit or ‘qubit’—the basic component of a quantum computer. Here we report the observation of quantum oscillations in a single-Cooper-pair box. By applying a short voltage pulse via a gate electrode, we can control the coherent quantum state evolution: the pulse modifies the energies of the two charge states non-adiabatically, bringing them into resonance. The resulting state—a superposition of the two charge states—is detected by a tunnelling current through a probe junction. Our results demonstrate electrical coherent control of a qubit in a solid-state electronic device.