Diode effect in Josephson junctions with a single magnetic atom

Martina Trahms, Larissa Melischek, Jacob F. Steiner, Bharti Mahendru, Idan Tamir, Nils Bogdanoff, Olof Peters, Gaël Reecht, Clemens B. Winkelmann, Felix Oppen and Katharina J. Franke ()
Additional contact information
Martina Trahms: Freie Universität Berlin
Larissa Melischek: Freie Universität Berlin
Jacob F. Steiner: Freie Universität Berlin
Bharti Mahendru: Freie Universität Berlin
Idan Tamir: Freie Universität Berlin
Nils Bogdanoff: Freie Universität Berlin
Olof Peters: Freie Universität Berlin
Gaël Reecht: Freie Universität Berlin
Clemens B. Winkelmann: Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Institut Neél
Felix Oppen: Freie Universität Berlin
Katharina J. Franke: Freie Universität Berlin

Nature, 2023, vol. 615, issue 7953, 628-633

Abstract: Abstract Current flow in electronic devices can be asymmetric with bias direction, a phenomenon underlying the utility of diodes1 and known as non-reciprocal charge transport2. The promise of dissipationless electronics has recently stimulated the quest for superconducting diodes, and non-reciprocal superconducting devices have been realized in various non-centrosymmetric systems3–10. Here we investigate the ultimate limits of miniaturization by creating atomic-scale Pb–Pb Josephson junctions in a scanning tunnelling microscope. Pristine junctions stabilized by a single Pb atom exhibit hysteretic behaviour, confirming the high quality of the junctions, but no asymmetry between the bias directions. Non-reciprocal supercurrents emerge when inserting a single magnetic atom into the junction, with the preferred direction depending on the atomic species. Aided by theoretical modelling, we trace the non-reciprocity to quasiparticle currents flowing by means of electron–hole asymmetric Yu–Shiba–Rusinov states inside the superconducting energy gap and identify a new mechanism for diode behaviour in Josephson junctions. Our results open new avenues for creating atomic-scale Josephson diodes and tuning their properties through single-atom manipulation.

Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-05743-z Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:615:y:2023:i:7953:d:10.1038_s41586-023-05743-z

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-05743-z

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().