James Williams
University of Maryland
Topological Effects in Weak Link Josephson Junctions of Topological Crystalline Insulators
Josephson junctions have found use in high-speed electronics and quantum computers. In this talk I will describe the Josephson junction as a detector of exotic states. Focused will be given to junctions fabricated from the topological crystalline insulators, which are used to investigate the novel properties of induced superconductivity in SnTe-based materials. Unexpected properties of the Josephson effect reveal contributions to the supercurrent from the surface state not observed in normal-state transport [1]. In particular, observation of a 0-\phi state in the junction has recently been observed in my group [2], indicating a temperature-driven topological phase transition [3]. Future work on these junctions and more broadly on measurements of quantum materials will also be discussed.
[1] R. Snyder, et al., Physical Review Letters 121, 097701 (2018).
[2] C. Trimble, et al., in preparation (2018).
[3] Wang et al., Physical Review Letters 119 187003 (2017).