Scientists create one-way supercurrent switch with tunable direction
Researchers have engineered a quantum device that lets current flow preferentially in one direction—a capability with major implications for next-generation quantum computers and superconducting electronics. The advance, published in Physical Review Research, demonstrates 50% efficiency in controlling current asymmetry, making it potentially viable for practical quantum applications.
Originaltitel: Nonlocal Josephson diode effect in minimal Kitaev chains
We study the emergence of the nonlocal Josephson effect in a system composed of three laterally coupled minimal Kitaev chains and exploit it to realize the nonlocal Josephson diode effect. We find that an imbalance between crossed Andreev reflections and electron cotunneling in the middle Kitaev chain gives rise to an asymmetric <a:math xmlns:a="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <a:mrow> <a:mn>2</a:mn> <a:mi>π</a:mi> </a:mrow> </a:math> -periodic phase-dependent Andreev spectrum, controlled by the superconducting phases across the left and right junctions. We then show that the asymmetric Andreev spectrum, formed by hybridized Andreev bound states at the left and right junctions, enables a supercurrent across one junction via the phase difference at the other junction, thereby signaling the nonlocal Josephson effect. Notably, these nonlocal Josephson supercurrents exhibit distinct positive and negative critical currents, demonstrating the realization of the nonlocal Josephson diode effect with highly tunable polarity and efficiencies exceeding 50%. The nonlocal Josephson diode effect requires breaking local time-reversal and local charge-conjugation symmetries, with the latter being unique to minimal Kitaev chains. Our results establish minimal Kitaev chains as a highly controllable platform for engineering nonlocal Josephson phenomena.