Litcius/Paper detail

Nonlocal Conductance Spectroscopy of Andreev Bound States: Symmetry Relations and BCS Charges

Jeroen Danon, Anna Birk Hellenes, Esben Bork Hansen, Lucas Casparis, Andrew Higginbotham, Karsten Flensberg

2020Physical Review Letters108 citationsDOIOpen Access PDF

Abstract

Two-terminal conductance spectroscopy of superconducting devices is a common tool for probing Andreev and Majorana bound states. Here, we study theoretically a three-terminal setup, with two normal leads coupled to a grounded superconducting terminal. Using a single-electron scattering matrix, we derive the subgap conductance matrix for the normal leads and discuss its symmetries. In particular, we show that the local and the nonlocal elements of the conductance matrix have pairwise identical antisymmetric components. Moreover, we find that the nonlocal elements are directly related to the local BCS charges of the bound states close to the normal probes and we show how the BCS charge of overlapping Majorana bound states can be extracted from experiments.

Topics & Concepts

Bound statePhysicsAndreev reflectionConductanceSuperconductivityMAJORANACondensed matter physicsCharge (physics)Antisymmetric relationScatteringSpectroscopyQuantum mechanicsProximity effect (electron beam lithography)Materials scienceNanotechnologyElectron-beam lithographyMathematical physicsLayer (electronics)ResistTopological Materials and PhenomenaAdvanced Condensed Matter PhysicsQuantum and electron transport phenomena