Fermi-arc supercurrent oscillations in Dirac semimetal Josephson junctions

Cai Zhen Li, An Qi Wang, Chuan Li*, Wen Zhuang Zheng, Alexander Brinkman, Da Peng Yu, Zhi Min Liao*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

25 Citations (Scopus)
158 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

One prominent hallmark of topological semimetals is the existence of unusual topological surface states known as Fermi arcs. Nevertheless, the Fermi-arc superconductivity remains elusive. Here, we report the critical current oscillations from surface Fermi arcs in Nb-Dirac semimetal Cd3As2-Nb Josephson junctions. The supercurrent from bulk states are suppressed under an in-plane magnetic field ~0.1 T, while the supercurrent from the topological surface states survives up to 0.5 T. Contrary to the minimum normal-state conductance, the Fermi-arc carried supercurrent shows a maximum critical value near the Dirac point, which is consistent with the fact that the Fermi arcs have maximum density of state at the Dirac point. Moreover, the critical current exhibits periodic oscillations with a parallel magnetic field, which is well understood by considering the in-plane orbital effect from the surface states. Our results suggest the Dirac semimetal combined with superconductivity should be promising for topological quantum devices.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1150
JournalNature communications
Volume11
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2 Mar 2020

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