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Symmetry Protected Josephson Supercurrents in Three-Dimensional Topological Insulators

Abstract:

Coupling the surface state of a topological insulator (TI) to an s-wave superconductor is predicted to produce the long-sought Majorana quasiparticle excitations. Such Majorana fermions may be topologically protected from decoherence, and could play a significant role in solid state implementations of a quantum computer. A requisite step in the search for Majorana fermions is to understand the nature and origin of the supercurrent generated between superconducting contacts and a TI. In this talk, I will discuss transport measurements of DC Josephson effects in TI-superconductor junctions (Bi 2 Se 3 -Al) as the chemical potential is moved from the bulk bands into the band gap, or through the true topological regime characterized by the presence of only surface currents. We compare our results to 3D quantum transport simulations to conclude that the supercurrent is largely carried by surface states, due to the inherent topology of the bands, and that it is robust against disorder. We further find that the supercurrent is not symmetric with respect to the conduction and valence bands, and that the Fraunhofer patterns are similar both within and outside of the topological regime.

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