Transition from coherent mesoscopic single particle transport to proximity Josephson-current

TL;DR

This paper investigates how tuning nanoscale geometry can enhance and eventually induce a transition to a Josephson supercurrent in metal-superconductor interfaces by increasing phase coherence and forming a resonator.

Contribution

It demonstrates a controllable transition from suppressed to infinite conductance, revealing the role of phase coherence and geometry in proximity-induced superconductivity.

Findings

Enhanced conductance with increased phase-coherent volume

Formation of a resonator leading to a transition to Josephson current

Control of transport properties via nanoscale geometry tuning

Abstract

The transport through a metal-superconductor interface is governed by a special charge conversion process, the Andreev reflection, where each incident electron drags another electron with itself to form a Cooper pair. At the normal side a hole is left behind dressed by superconducting correlations. For a low transparency interface the simultaneous transfer of two charges is strongly suppressed leading to a reduced conductance. Here we demonstrate that this reduced conductance can be turned to an infinite one by tuning the nanoscale geometry. Creating variable size nanojunctions between a thin metallic film and a superconducting tip we study how multiple phase-coherent scatterings enhance the superconducting correlations at the normal side. By increasing the coherent volume of carriers initially the transmission through the interface is continuously enhanced. However, as the phase-coherent volume reaches the opposite surface of the thin film a resonator is formed, and a robust transition is induced due to Cooper pair condensation.