Preliminary demonstration of a persistent Josephson phase-slip memory cell with topological protection

TL;DR

This paper introduces a superconducting memory cell based on phase-slip transitions in aluminum nanowire Josephson junctions, offering topological protection, miniaturization potential, and robustness against noise for classical and quantum computing applications.

Contribution

It presents a novel superconducting memory design utilizing phase-slip transitions, distinct from flux-based memories, with topological protection and reduced size constraints.

Findings

Demonstrates a hysteretic phase-slip transition in aluminum nanowire Josephson junctions.

Shows the memory's robustness against stochastic phase-slips and magnetic noise.

Highlights potential for miniaturization and integration into superconducting logic and qubits.

Abstract

Superconducting computing promises enhanced computational power in both classical and quantum approaches. Yet, scalable and fast superconducting memories are not implemented. Here, we propose a fully superconducting memory cell based on the hysteretic phase-slip transition existing in long aluminum nanowire Josephson junctions. Embraced by a superconducting ring, the memory cell codifies the logic state in the direction of the circulating persistent current, as commonly defined in flux-based superconducting memories. But, unlike the latter, the hysteresis here is a consequence of the phase-slip occurring in the long weak link and associated to the topological transition of its superconducting gap. This disentangle our memory scheme from the large-inductance constraint, thus enabling its miniaturization. Moreover, the strong activation energy for phase-slip nucleation provides a robust topological protection against stochastic phase-slips and magnetic-flux noise. These properties make the Josephson phase-slip memory a promising solution for advanced superconducting classical logic architectures or flux qubits.