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Germanese G, Paolucci F, Marchegiani G, Braggio A, Giazotto F. Bipolar thermoelectric Josephson engine. NATURE NANOTECHNOLOGY 2022; 17:1084-1090. [PMID: 36138204 DOI: 10.1038/s41565-022-01208-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/02/2022] [Accepted: 07/26/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Thermoelectric effects in metals are typically small due to the nearly perfect particle-hole symmetry around their Fermi surface. Furthermore, thermo-phase effects and linear thermoelectricity in superconducting systems have been identified only when particle-hole symmetry is explicitly broken, since thermoelectric effects were considered impossible in pristine superconductors. Here, we experimentally demonstrate that superconducting tunnel junctions develop a very large bipolar thermoelectricity in the presence of a sizable thermal gradient thanks to spontaneous particle-hole symmetry breaking. Our junctions show Seebeck coefficients of up to ±300 μV K-1, which is comparable with quantum dots and roughly 105 times larger than the value expected for normal metals at subkelvin temperatures. Moreover, by integrating our junctions into a Josephson interferometer, we realize a bipolar thermoelectric Josephson engine generating phase-tunable electric powers of up to ~140 nW mm-2. Notably, our device implements also the prototype for a persistent thermoelectric memory cell, written or erased by current injection. We expect that our findings will lead to applications in superconducting quantum technologies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gaia Germanese
- NEST, Istituto Nanoscienze-CNR and Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy
- Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Pisa, Pisa, Italy
| | - Federico Paolucci
- NEST, Istituto Nanoscienze-CNR and Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy.
| | | | - Alessandro Braggio
- NEST, Istituto Nanoscienze-CNR and Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy
| | - Francesco Giazotto
- NEST, Istituto Nanoscienze-CNR and Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy.
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Zhang X, Foster MS. Dissipative Hot-Spot-Enabled Shock and Bounce Dynamics via Terahertz Quantum Quenches in Helical Edge States. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2021; 127:026801. [PMID: 34296892 DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.127.026801] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/23/2020] [Revised: 04/22/2021] [Accepted: 06/09/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
We study quantum quenches of helical liquids with spin-flip inelastic scattering. Counterpropagating charge packets in helical edges can be created by an ultrashort electric pulse applied across a 2D topological insulator. Localized "hot spots" that form due to scattering enable two types of strongly nonlinear wave dynamics. First, propagating packets develop self-focusing shock fronts. Second, colliding packets with opposite charge can exhibit near-perfect retroreflection, despite strong dissipation. This leads to frequency doubling that could be detected experimentally from emitted terahertz radiation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xinghai Zhang
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, USA
| | - Matthew S Foster
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, USA
- Rice Center for Quantum Materials, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, USA
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Tan ZB, Laitinen A, Kirsanov NS, Galda A, Vinokur VM, Haque M, Savin A, Golubev DS, Lesovik GB, Hakonen PJ. Thermoelectric current in a graphene Cooper pair splitter. Nat Commun 2021; 12:138. [PMID: 33420055 PMCID: PMC7794233 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-20476-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/06/2020] [Accepted: 11/29/2020] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Generation of electric voltage in a conductor by applying a temperature gradient is a fundamental phenomenon called the Seebeck effect. This effect and its inverse is widely exploited in diverse applications ranging from thermoelectric power generators to temperature sensing. Recently, a possibility of thermoelectricity arising from the interplay of the non-local Cooper pair splitting and the elastic co-tunneling in the hybrid normal metal-superconductor-normal metal structures was predicted. Here, we report the observation of the non-local Seebeck effect in a graphene-based Cooper pair splitting device comprising two quantum dots connected to an aluminum superconductor and present a theoretical description of this phenomenon. The observed non-local Seebeck effect offers an efficient tool for producing entangled electrons. Thermoelectricity due to the interplay of the nonlocal Cooper pair splitting and the elastic co-tunneling in normal metal-superconductor-normal metal structure is predicted. Here, the authors observe the non-local Seebeck effect in a graphene-based Cooper pair splitting device.
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Affiliation(s)
- Z B Tan
- Low Temperature Laboratory, Department of Applied Physics, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland.,Shenzhen Institute for Quantum Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, 518055, China
| | - A Laitinen
- Low Temperature Laboratory, Department of Applied Physics, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland
| | - N S Kirsanov
- Low Temperature Laboratory, Department of Applied Physics, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland.,Terra Quantum AG, St. Gallerstrasse 16A, 9400, Rorschach, Switzerland.,Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Institutskii Per. 9, Dolgoprudny, Moscow Distr., 141700, Russian Federation.,Consortium for Advanced Science and Engineering (CASE), University of Chicago, 5801 S Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA
| | - A Galda
- James Franck Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA.,Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 S. Cass Avenue, Argonne, IL, 60439, USA
| | - V M Vinokur
- Consortium for Advanced Science and Engineering (CASE), University of Chicago, 5801 S Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA.,Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 S. Cass Avenue, Argonne, IL, 60439, USA
| | - M Haque
- Low Temperature Laboratory, Department of Applied Physics, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland
| | - A Savin
- Low Temperature Laboratory, Department of Applied Physics, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland
| | - D S Golubev
- QTF Centre of Excellence, Department of Applied Physics, Aalto University, FI-00076, Aalto, Finland
| | - G B Lesovik
- Terra Quantum AG, St. Gallerstrasse 16A, 9400, Rorschach, Switzerland.,Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Institutskii Per. 9, Dolgoprudny, Moscow Distr., 141700, Russian Federation
| | - P J Hakonen
- Low Temperature Laboratory, Department of Applied Physics, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland. .,QTF Centre of Excellence, Department of Applied Physics, Aalto University, FI-00076, Aalto, Finland.
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