Orbital Josephson Interference in a Nanowire Proximity Effect Junction

Abstract

A semiconductor nanowire based superconductor-normal-superconductor (SNS) junction is modeled theoretically. A magnetic field is applied along the nanowire axis, parallel to the current. The Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations for Andreev bound states are solved while considering the electronic subbands due to radial confinement in the N-section. The energy-versus-phase curves of the Andreev bound states shift in phase as the N-section quasiparticles with orbital angular momentum couple to the axial field. A similar phase shift is observed in the continuum current of the junction. The quantum mechanical result is shown to reduce to an intuitive, semi-classical model when the Andreev approximation holds. Numerical calculations of the critical current versus axial field reveal flux-aperiodic oscillations that we identify as a novel form of Josephson interference due to this orbital subband effect. This behavior is studied as a function of junction length and chemical potential. Finally, we discuss extensions to the model that may be useful for describing realistic devices.

New version contains 7 figures. Appendix on continuum current calculations

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Cited by in corpus (8)

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• Supercurrent interference in few-mode nanowire Josephson junctions
• Suppression of the overlap between Majorana fermions by orbital magnetic effects in semiconducting-superconducting nanowires
• Supercurrent Interference in Semiconductor Nanowire Josephson Junctions
• Nb/InAs nanowire proximity junctions from Josephson to quantum dot regimes
• Hard-gap spectroscopy in a self-defined mesoscopic InAs/Al nanowire Josephson junction
• Impact of junction length on supercurrent resilience against magnetic field in InSb-Al nanowire Josephson junctions
• Gate-tunable Superconductivity in Hybrid InSb-Pb Nanowires