Andreev reflection at high magnetic fields: evidence for electron and hole transport in edge states

We have studied magnetotransport in arrays of niobium filled grooves in an InAs/Al(x)Ga(1-x)Sb heterostructure. The critical field of up to 2.6 T permits one to enter the quantum Hall regime. In the superconducting state, we observe strong magnetoresistance oscillations, whose amplitude exceeds the Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations by a factor of about 2, when normalized to the background. Additionally, we find that above a geometry-dependent magnetic field value the sample in the superconducting state has a higher longitudinal resistance than in the normal state. Both observations can be explained with edge channels populated with electrons and Andreev-reflected holes.     

Abnormal magnetoresistance behavior in Nb thin film with rectangular arrays of antidots

Magnetoresistance in superconducting Nb films perforated with rectangular arrays of antidots (holes) is investigated at various temperatures and currents. Normally, the magnetoresistance increases with the increasing magnetic field. In this paper, we report a reverse behavior in a certain range of high fields after vortex reconfiguration transition, where the resistances at non-matching fields are smaller than those in the low field regime. This phenomenon is due to a strong caging effect, in which the interstitial vortices are trapped among the pinned multiquanta vortices. This effect is temperature and current dependent.     

Substrate-induced stress in silicon nanocrystal/SiO2 multilayer structures

Magnetoresistance in superconducting Nb films perforated with rectangular arrays of antidots (holes) is investigated at various temperatures and currents. Normally, the magnetoresistance increases with the increasing magnetic field. In this paper, we report a reverse behavior in a certain range of high fields after vortex reconfiguration transition, where the resistances at non-matching fields are smaller than those in the low field regime. This phenomenon is due to a strong caging effect, in which the interstitial vortices are trapped among the pinned multiquanta vortices. This effect is temperature and current dependent.     

Commensurability effects in superconducting Nb films with quasiperiodic pinning arrays

We study experimentally the critical depinning current I(c) versus applied magnetic field B in Nb thin films which contain 2D arrays of circular antidots placed on the nodes of quasiperiodic (QP) fivefold Penrose lattices. Close to the transition temperature T(c) we observe matching of the vortex lattice with the QP pinning array, confirming essential features in the I(c)(B) patterns as predicted by Misko et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 177007 (2005)]. We find a significant enhancement in I(c)(B) for QP pinning arrays in comparison to I(c) in samples with randomly distributed antidots or no antidots.     

Andreev reflection in strong magnetic fields

We have studied the interplay of Andreev reflection and cyclotron motion of quasiparticles at a superconductor-normal-metal interface with a strong magnetic field applied parallel to the interface. Bound states are formed due to the confinement introduced by both the external magnetic field and the superconducting gap. These bound states are a coherent superposition of electron and hole edge excitations similar to those realized in finite quantum-Hall samples. We find the energy spectrum for these Andreev edge states and calculate transport properties.     

Quantum interference and decoherence in hexagonal antidot lattices

The Altshuler–Aronov–Spivak (AAS) oscillations and the Aharonov–Bohm (AB) type oscillations both at low and high magnetic fields were observed in hexagonal antidot lattices fabricated from a GaAs/AlGaAs two-dimensional electron gas sample. The periodicities in the magnetic field and in the gate bias voltage, of the high field AB oscillation furnish information on the edge states localized around the antidots. The temperature dependences of these quantum oscillations are studied.     

Magneto-coulomb oscillations in GaAs-AlGaAs quantum dot structures

We report on experiments of the magnetotransport properties of GaAs-AlGaAs lateral quantum dots. At high magnetic fields for a 1 μm square dot structure, current flow occurred via edge states and, with the point contacts adjusted to allow transmission of one or more edge states, a strong backscattering resonance followed by short period oscillations were observed in the magnetoresistance, as B increased. At higher fields for a 2 μm dot, we observe a rapid rise in the magnetoresistance associated with the depopulation of the point contacts and the isolation of the dot from the leads. At still higher fields there occur periodic oscillations whose period was two orders of magnitude larger than would result from interference, or Aharonov-Bohm type effects.We analyze these phenomena using self-consistent electronic structure calculations for our devices. In particular, we show that the evolution of the terrace like structure of the potential profile profoundly affects the single particle spectrum within the dot when several Landau levels are occupied. For the large dot device, we expect that in the high field regime with the dot isolated from the leads, only a single Landau level is occupied in both the dot and the 2DEG region. In this regime, tunneling into and out of the dot is regulated by charging effects. We have introduced a "magneto-Coulomb oscillations" explanation of the periodic resonances that are observed.     

Two-dimensional electron gas in a lattice of antidots with a period of 80 nm

The magnetotransport in a two-dimensional electron gas with a lattice of antidots, which has a record-breaking small (80 nm) period and size (20–40 nm) of antidots comparable with the de Broglie wavelength of electrons, has been experimentally studied. A wide variety of new features of the magnetoresistance behavior has been observed both under semiclassical conditions and in the regime of quantizing magnetic fields. In particular, the anomalous semiclassical magnetoresistance peak induced by the nonmonotonic scattering effects has been revealed. The Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations have been revealed to exhibit an unusual transition from the anomalous period constant in the magnetic field to the normal constant in the inverse magnetic field. The effect of the generation and suppression of the oscillations has also been observed; this effect is induced by the transformation of the short and long-range scattering potentials in the lattice owing to the variation of the density of the two-dimensional electrons.     

Tunneling conductance through the half-metal/conical magnet/superconductor junctions in the adiabatic and non-adiabatic regimes: Self-consistent calculations

The tunneling conductance through the half-metal/conical magnet/superconductor (HM/CM/SC) junctions is investigated with the use of the Bogoliubov–de Gennes equations in the framework of Blonder–Tinkham–Klapwijk formalism. Due to the spin band separation in the HM, the conductance in the subgap region is mainly determined by the anomalous Andreev reflection, the probability of which strongly depends on the spin transmission in the CM layer. We show that the spins of electrons injected from the HM can be transmitted through the CM to the SC either adiabatically or non-adiabatically depending on the period of the spatial modulation of the exchange field. We find that the conductance in the subgap region oscillates as a function of the CM layer thickness wherein the oscillations transform from the irregular pattern in the non-adiabatic regime to the regular one in the adiabatic regime. For both adiabatic and non-adiabatic transport regimes the conductance is studied over a broad range of parameters determining the spiral magnetization in the CM. We find that in the non-adiabatic regime, the decrease of the exchange field amplitude in the CM leads to the emergence of the conductance peak for the particular CM thickness in agreement with recent experiments.     

Vortices trapped in the damaged surroundings of antidots in Nb films – Depinning transition

The depinning transition of Vortex Matter in the presence of antidots in superconducting Nb films has been investigated. The antidots were fabricated using two different techniques, resulting in samples with arrays of diverse pinning efficiency. At low temperatures and fields, the spatial arrangement of Vortex Matter is governed by the presence of the antidots. Keeping the temperature fixed, an increase of the field induces a depinning transition. As the temperature approaches T_c, the depinning frontier exhibits a characteristic kink at the temperature T_k, above which the phase boundary exhibits a different regime. The lower-temperature regime is adequately described by a power-law expression, whose exponent n was observed to be inversely proportional to the pinning capability of the antidot, a feature that qualifies this parameter as a figure of merit to quantify the pinning strength of the defect.     

Nonlinear effects in a two-dimensional electron gas with a periodic lattice of scatterers

The magnetoresistance of two-dimensional (2D) electrons in a periodic lattice of antidots is found to be substantially influenced by an applied electric field. The non-Ohmic behavior of the resistance in the region of commensurability oscillations originates from the electric-field-induced breakdown of the trajectories skipping along the lattice arrays. In the region of magnetic fields where the cyclotron diameter is less than the distance between antidots the breakdown of the orbits skipping around antidots is responsible for the nonlinear behavior of the magnetoresistance. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 65, No. 3, 237–241 (10 February 1997) Published in English in the original Russian journal. Edited by Steve Torstveit.     

Specular Andreev reflection at the edge of an InAs/GaSb double quantum well with band inversion

We experimentally investigate transport through the side junction between a niobium superconductor and the mesa edge of a two-dimensional system, realized in an InAs/GaSb double quantum well with band inversion. We demonstrate, that different transport regimes can be achieved by variation of the mesa step. We observe anomalous behavior of Andreev reflection within a finite low-bias interval, which is invariant for both transport regimes. We connect this behavior with the transition from retro-(at low biases) to specular (at high ones) Andreev reflection channels in an InAs/GaSb double quantum well with band inversion.     

Imaging of Coulomb-driven quantum Hall edge states

The edges of a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) in the quantum Hall effect (QHE) regime are divided into alternating metallic and insulating strips, with their widths determined by the energy gaps of the QHE states and the electrostatic Coulomb interaction. Local probing of these submicrometer features, however, is challenging due to the buried 2DEG structures. Using a newly developed microwave impedance microscope, we demonstrate the real-space conductivity mapping of the edge and bulk states. The sizes, positions, and field dependence of the edge strips around the sample perimeter agree quantitatively with the self-consistent electrostatic picture. The evolution of microwave images as a function of magnetic fields provides rich microscopic information around the ν=2 QHE state.     

Temperature effects on the magnetoplasmon spectrum of a weakly modulated graphene monolayer

In this work, we determine the effects of temperature on the magnetoplasmon spectrum of an electrically modulated graphene monolayer as well as a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG). The intra-Landau band magnetoplasmon spectrum within the self-consistent field approach is investigated for both the aforementioned systems. Results obtained not only exhibit Shubnikov-de Haas (SdH) oscillations but also commensurability oscillations (Weiss oscillations). These oscillations are periodic as a function of inverse magnetic field. We find that both the magnetic oscillations, SdH and Weiss, have a greater amplitude and are more robust against temperature in graphene compared to a conventional 2DEG. Furthermore, there is a π phase shift between the magnetoplasmon oscillations in the two systems which can be attributed to Dirac electrons in graphene acquiring a Berry's phase as they traverse a closed path in a magnetic field.     

Thermodynamic properties of a magnetically modulated graphene monolayer

The effect of magnetic modulation on thermodynamic properties of a graphene monolayer in the presence of a constant perpendicular magnetic field is reported here. One-dimensional spatial electric or magnetic modulation lifts the degeneracy of the Landau levels and converts into bands and their bandwidth oscillates with magnetic field, leading to Weiss-type oscillations in the thermodynamic properties. The effect of magnetic modulation on the thermodynamic properties of a graphene sheet is studied and then compared with electrically modulated graphene and magnetically modulated conventional two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG). We observe Weiss-type and de Haas-van Alphen oscillations at low and high magnetic fields, respectively. There is a definite phase difference in Weiss-type oscillations in thermodynamic quantities of magnetically modulated graphene compared to electrically modulated graphene. On the other hand, the phase remains the same and the amplitude of the oscillation is large when compared with the magnetically modulated two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG). Explicit asymptotic expressions of the density of states and the Helmholtz free energy are provided to understand the phase and amplitude of the Weiss-type oscillations qualitatively. We also study thermodynamic properties when both electric and magnetic modulations are present. The Weiss-type oscillations still exist when the modulations are out-of-phase.     

Dynamics of one-dimensional Bose liquids: Andreev-like reflection at Y junctions and the absence of the Aharonov-Bohm effect

We study one-dimensional Bose liquids of interacting ultracold atoms in the Y-shaped potential when each branch is filled with atoms. We find that the excitation packet incident on a single Y junction should experience a negative density reflection analogous to the Andreev reflection at normal-superconductor interfaces, although the present system does not contain fermions. In a ring-interferometer-type configuration, we find that the transport is completely insensitive to the (effective) flux contained in the ring, in contrast with the Aharonov-Bohm effect of a single particle in the same geometry.     

Elementary Andreev processes in a driven superconductor–normal metal contact

We investigate the full counting statistics of a voltage-driven normal metal(N)–superconductor(S) contact. In the low-bias regime below the superconducting gap, the NS contact can be mapped onto a purely normal contact, albeit with doubled voltage and counting fields. Hence in this regime the transport characteristics can be obtained by the corresponding substitution of the normal metal results. The elementary processes are single Andreev transfers and electron- and hole-like Andreev transfers. Considering Lorentzian voltage pulses we find an optimal quantization for half-integer Levitons.     

Far-infrared conductivity measurements of pair breaking in superconducting Nb 0.5 Ti 0.5 N thin films induced by an external magnetic field

We report the complex optical conductivity of a superconducting thin film of Nb 0.5 Ti 0.5 N in an external magnetic field. The field was applied parallel to the film surface and the conductivity extracted from far-infrared transmission and reflection measurements. The real part shows the superconducting gap, which we observe to be suppressed by the applied magnetic field. We compare our results with the pair-breaking theory of Abrikosov and Gor'kov and confirm directly the theory's validity for the optical conductivity.     

Heat transport in proximity structures

We study heat and charge transport through a normal diffusive wire coupled with a superconducting wire over the region smaller than the coherence length. Because of partial Andreev reflection of quasiparticles from the interface, the subgap thermal flow is essentially suppressed and approaches zero along with energy, which is specific for diffusive structures. Whereas the electric conductance shows a conventional reentrance effect, the thermal conductance kappa rapidly decreases with temperature which qualitatively explains the results of recent experiments. In the Andreev interferometer geometry, kappa experiences full-scale oscillations with the order parameter phase difference.     

Andreev reflection at the edge of a two-dimensional electron system with strong spin-orbit coupling

We experimentally investigate transport properties of a single planar junction between the niobium superconductor and the edge of a two-dimensional electron system in a narrow In_0.75Ga_0.25As quantum well with strong Rashba-type spin-orbit coupling. We experimentally demonstrate suppression of Andreev reflection at low biases at ultralow temperatures. From the analysis of temperature and magnetic field behavior, we interpret the observed suppression as a result of a spin-orbit coupling. There is also an experimental sign of the topological superconductivity realization in the present structure.