Unconventional supercurrent phase in Ising superconductor Josephson junction with atomically thin magnetic insulator.

ABSTRACT: In two-dimensional (2D) NbSe₂ crystal, which lacks inversion symmetry, strong spin-orbit coupling aligns the spins of Cooper pairs to the orbital valleys, forming Ising Cooper pairs (ICPs). The unusual spin texture of ICPs can be further modulated by introducing magnetic exchange. Here, we report unconventional supercurrent phase in van der Waals heterostructure Josephson junctions (JJs) that couples NbSe₂ ICPs across an atomically thin magnetic insulator (MI) Cr₂Ge₂Te₆. By constructing a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID), we measure the phase of the transferred Cooper pairs in the MI JJ. We demonstrate a doubly degenerate nontrivial JJ phase (ϕ), formed by momentum-conserving tunneling of ICPs across magnetic domains

SUBMITTER: Idzuchi H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8429564 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature