Tuning of Weyl point emergence in multi-terminal Josephson junctions using quantum point contacts

TL;DR

This paper investigates how quantum point contacts in four-terminal Josephson junctions can electrically tune the emergence of Weyl points, revealing that increasing conduction channels enhances their probability.

Contribution

It introduces a theoretical analysis of channel number effects on Weyl point emergence in multi-terminal Josephson junctions with quantum point contacts.

Findings

Increasing channels raises Weyl point emergence probability.

Maximum 17% emergence probability with balanced two channels per terminal.

Unbalanced channels suppress Weyl point emergence.

Abstract

Multi-terminal Josephson junction with three or more superconductors is an attractive quantum system to emerge and tune exotic electronic states. In four terminal Josephson junctions, the Weyl physics, namely topologically protected zero energy state, emerges without assuming any exotic materials. In this study, we consider the four-terminal Josephson junction with the quantum point contact structures between the mesoscopic normal region and four superconducting terminals. The quantum point contacts can tune electrically the number of conduction channels. We theoretically investigate an effect of the increase of channels on the emergence of Weyl points. The increase of channels causes the increase of Andreev bound states in the system, which increase the emergence probability of Weyl points. When all terminals have two channels, the emergence probability is up to 17\%, which is about four times larger than that for all single channel junctions. We consider the balance of the number of conduction channels in the four terminals. When the number of channels is unbalanced, the increase of emergence probability is suppressed.