Indium-contacted van der Waals gap tunneling spectroscopy for van der Waals layered materials

The electrical phase transition in van der Waals (vdW) layered materials such as transition-metal dichalcogenides and Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x (Bi-2212) high-temperature superconductor has been explored using various techniques, including scanning tunneling and photoemission spectroscopies, and measurements of electrical resistance as a function of temperature. In this study, we develop one useful method to elucidate the electrical phases in vdW layered materials: indium (In)-contacted vdW tunneling spectroscopy for 1T-TaS2, Bi-2212 and 2H-MoS2. We utilized the vdW gap formed at an In/vdW material interface as a tunnel barrier for tunneling spectroscopy. For strongly correlated electron systems such as 1T-TaS2 and Bi-2212, pronounced gap features corresponding to the Mott and superconducting gaps were respectively observed at T = 4 K. We observed a gate dependence of the amplitude of the superconducting gap, which has potential applications in a gate-tunable superconducting device with a SiO2/Si substrate. For In/10 nm-thick 2H-MoS2 devices, differential conductance shoulders at bias voltages of approximately ± 0.45 V were observed, which were attributed to the semiconducting gap. These results show that In-contacted vdW gap tunneling spectroscopy in a fashion of field-effect transistor provides feasible and reliable ways to investigate electronic structures of vdW materials.

Phase shifter based on an ultrathin superconducting bilayer with a through-hole for a superconducting device

Applying a radian phase shift other than 2π is a key issue for superconducting circuits, such as flux qubits. The magnetic flux is useful when generating a phase shift. However, a quantized magnetic flux accompanying a trapped vortex in a superconductor does not have a phase shifter function. The magnetic flux generated by an external field generates noise. In this study, we propose a phase bias system that does not require an external field during operation. We confirm the phase shift of a direct current superconducting interference device (SQUID) placed on an ultrathin superconducting Nb bilayer with a through-hole by cooling it to a temperature below the superconducting transition temperature with an external field. Although the cause of the phase shift in our system is unclear, we believe that it may be caused by a fractional quantum in the bilayer. When the SQUID is replaced by a qubit, the phase shift can be applied to a phase bias.

Kondo effect and superconductivity in niobium with iron impurities

Kondo effect is an interesting phenomenon in quantum many-body physics. Niobium (Nb) is a conventional superconductor important for many superconducting device applications. It was long thought that the Kondo effect cannot be observed in Nb because the magnetic moment of a magnetic impurity, e.g. iron (Fe), would have been quenched in Nb. Here we report an observation of the Kondo effect in a Nb thin film structure. We found that by co-annealing Nb films with Fe in Argon gas at above 400 $$^{\circ }$$ ∘ C for an hour, one can induce a Kondo effect in Nb. The Kondo effect is more pronounced at higher annealing temperature. The temperature dependence of the resistance suggests existence of remnant superconductivity at low temperatures even though the system never becomes superconducting. We find that the Hamann theory for the Kondo resistivity gives a satisfactory fitting to the result. The Hamann analysis gives a Kondo temperature for this Nb–Fe system at $$\sim $$ ∼ 16 K, well above the superconducting transition onset temperature 9 K of the starting Nb film, suggesting that the screening of the impurity spins is effective to allow Cooper pairs to form at low temperatures. We suggest that the mechanism by which the Fe impurities retain partially their magnetic moment is that they are located at the grain boundaries, not fully dissolved into the bcc lattice of Nb.

The cryogenic control system of BEPCII

The BEPCII project is for upgrading the Beijing Electron Positron Collider to reach a higher luminosity. The cryogenic system has been firstly designed and deployed in BEPCII, which provides cooling capacity for SRF cavities, SCQ and SSM. The cryogenic control system consists of Siemens PLC for the refrigerator control and “PLC + IOC” for superconducting device control. The BEPCII machine commissioning with beam started in October 2006. This paper describes the design and the development of the cryogenic control system.

Conductance asymmetries in mesoscopic superconducting devices due to finite bias

Tunneling conductance spectroscopy in normal metal-superconductor junctions is an important tool for probing Andreev bound states in mesoscopic superconducting devices, such as Majorana nanowires. In an ideal superconducting device, the subgap conductance obeys specific symmetry relations, due to particle-hole symmetry and unitarity of the scattering matrix. However, experimental data often exhibits deviations from these symmetries or even their explicit breakdown. In this work, we identify a mechanism that leads to conductance asymmetries without quasiparticle poisoning. In particular, we investigate the effects of finite bias and include the voltage dependence in the tunnel barrier transparency, finding significant conductance asymmetries for realistic device parameters. It is important to identify the physical origin of conductance asymmetries: in contrast to other possible mechanisms such as quasiparticle poisoning, finite-bias effects are not detrimental to the performance of a topological qubit. To that end we identify features that can be used to experimentally determine whether finite-bias effects are the source of conductance asymmetries.

Improved and simplified design of the relativistic helitron resonator

One of the main trends in microwave electronics is the ultra-large power production. The electron stream energy is converted inside vacuum systems, where the key moment is increasing output power of microwave devices, which is possible only when using more and more powerful electron streams. Increasing electron stream power is possible due to either enhancing the carried currents or as a result of increasing the electron energy. Given the law that connects currents and voltages in electronic systems operating when the current is limited by a spatial charge, the production of ultra-high-power electron flows is associated with the usage of relativistic velocity electrons, i. e. approaching the light speed. Likewise, at present, relativistic electrovacuum devices (traveling-wave lamps and backward-wave lamps) use magnetic focusing for linear relativistic streams, which prevents the implementation of simple superconducting electrodynamic systems, because highfrequency metal superconductivity disappears in constant magnetic fields. Meanwhile, simplified ultra-highpower superconducting device structures can significantly increase the device energy due to the strong ohmic loss reduction, which just limits the device energy, destroying the working electrodynamic system surface by increasing power or pulse duration of the generator. The article outlines the modernized design of a new-type microwave generator – the relativistic helitron. The paper considers a simpler coaxial resonator design, obtained by using the supercritical narrowing of the inner conductor radius by the Hn1l mode of the electromagnetic field, rather than a coaxial resonator with notch filters.