Flux-periodic supercurrent oscillations in an Aharonov-Bohm-type nanowire Josephson junction

• Main Authors: Zellekens, Patrick, Deacon, Russell S, Basaric, Farah, Juluri, Raghavendra, Randle, Michael D, Bennemann, Benjamin, Krause, Christoph, Zimmermann, Erik, Sanchez, Ana M, Grützmacher, Detlev, Pawlis, Alexander, Ishibashi, Koji, Schäpers, Thomas
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 21.02.2024
• Subjects: Physics - Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics; Physics - Superconductivity
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2402.13880

Phase winding effects in hollow semiconductor nanowires with superconducting shells have been proposed as a route to engineer topological superconducting states. We investigate GaAs/InAs core/shell nanowires with half-shells of epitaxial aluminium as a potential platform for such devices, where the thin InAs shell confines the electron wave function around the GaAs core. With normal contacts we observed pronounced $h/e$ flux periodic oscillations in the magnetoconductance, indicating the presence of a tubular conductive channel in the InAs shell. Conversely, the switching current in Josephson junctions oscillates with approximately half that period, i.e. $h/2e$, indicating transport via Andreev transport processes in the junction enclosing threading magnetic flux. On these structures, we systematically studied the gate-, field-, and temperature-dependent evolution of the supercurrent. Results indicate that Andreev transport processes can occur about the wire circumference indicating full proximitization of the InAs shell from the half-shell superconducting contacts.