Last year saw a materials breakthrough, with the realization of a two-dimensional heterostructure combining superconductor and semiconductor layers. (See journals.aps.org/prb/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevB.93.15540.)
Now, as shown in a recent report, this material has been used to study interference effects controlled by magnetic fields in a Josephson junction made from this material. Anomalous interference reveals properties of the semiconductor in the junction. Making a Josephson junction from an epitaxial semiconductor-superconductor hybrid material that allows gate control of supercurrent is an important achievement. The effect of a magnetic field on the critical value of supercurrent tells us about how electron spin, spin-orbit coupling, and disorder interact in this new system. The research team included Jeroen Danon (theory), Henri Suominen and Morten Kjaergaard (both in experiment), and Fabrizio Nichele (team lead).
Read the published report.
