Josephson currents induced by the Witten effect

Abstract

We reveal the existence of a new type of topological Josephson effect involving type II superconductors and three-dimensional topological insulators as tunnel junctions. We predict that vortex lines induce a variant of the Witten effect that is the consequence of the axion electromagnetic response of the topological insulator: at the interface of the junction each flux quantum attains a fractional electrical charge of e/4. As a consequence, if an external magnetic field is applied perpendicular to the junction, the Witten effect induces an AC Josephson effect in absence of any external voltage. We derive a number of further experimental consequences and propose potential setups where these {quantized, flux induced, Witten} effects may be observed.

5 pages, 1 figure. Published version (PRL editor's suggestion)

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• Chiral Meissner effect in time-reversal invariant Weyl superconductors
• Absence of induced magnetic monopoles in Maxwellian magnetoelectrics
• On the Electromagnetic Response of Topological Superconductors
• Bulk-boundary correspondence between charged, anyonic strings and vortices
• Axion electrodynamics of Weyl superconductors with broken time-reversal symmetry
• Topological magnetoelectric response in passive magnetic devices
• Noise-Assisted Metastability: From Lévy Flights to Memristors, Quantum Escape, and Josephson-based Axion Searches
• Dyons with phase ${\delta }_{\theta }=n\theta$
• Fermion-Vortex Interactions in Axion Electrodynamics