skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Tunnelling spectroscopy of Andreev states in graphene

Abstract

A normal conductor placed in good contact with a superconductor can inherit its remarkable electronic properties. This proximity effect microscopically originates from the formation in the conductor of entangled electron–hole states, called Andreev states. Spectroscopic studies of Andreev states have been performed in just a handful of systems. The unique geometry, electronic structure and high mobility of graphene make it a novel platform for studying Andreev physics in two dimensions. In this paper, we use a full van der Waals heterostructure to perform tunnelling spectroscopy measurements of the proximity effect in superconductor–graphene–superconductor junctions. The measured energy spectra, which depend on the phase difference between the superconductors, reveal the presence of a continuum of Andreev bound states. Moreover, our device heterostructure geometry and materials enable us to measure the Andreev spectrum as a function of the graphene Fermi energy, showing a transition between different mesoscopic regimes. Furthermore, by experimentally introducing a novel concept, the supercurrent spectral density, we determine the supercurrent–phase relation in a tunnelling experiment, thus establishing the connection between Andreev physics at finite energy and the Josephson effect. Finally, this work opens up new avenues for probing exotic topological phases of matter in hybrid superconducting Dirac materials.

Authors:
 [1];  [1];  [1]; ORCiD logo [2];  [2];  [1]
  1. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States). Dept. of Physics
  2. National Inst. for Materials Science (NIMS), Tsukuba (Japan)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Science Foundation (NSF); Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (United States); Taiwan Merit Scholarship
OSTI Identifier:
1473905
Grant/Contract Number:  
SC0001819; DMR-0819762; ECS-0335765; GBMF4541; TMS-094-1-A-001
Resource Type:
Journal Article: Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Nature Physics
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 13; Journal Issue: 8; Journal ID: ISSN 1745-2473
Publisher:
Nature Publishing Group (NPG)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; electronic properties and devices; electronic properties and materials; superconducting devices; superconducting properties and materials

Citation Formats

Bretheau, Landry, Wang, Joel I-Jan, Pisoni, Riccardo, Watanabe, Kenji, Taniguchi, Takashi, and Jarillo-Herrero, Pablo. Tunnelling spectroscopy of Andreev states in graphene. United States: N. p., 2017. Web. doi:10.1038/NPHYS4110.
Bretheau, Landry, Wang, Joel I-Jan, Pisoni, Riccardo, Watanabe, Kenji, Taniguchi, Takashi, & Jarillo-Herrero, Pablo. Tunnelling spectroscopy of Andreev states in graphene. United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/NPHYS4110
Bretheau, Landry, Wang, Joel I-Jan, Pisoni, Riccardo, Watanabe, Kenji, Taniguchi, Takashi, and Jarillo-Herrero, Pablo. 2017. "Tunnelling spectroscopy of Andreev states in graphene". United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/NPHYS4110. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1473905.
@article{osti_1473905,
title = {Tunnelling spectroscopy of Andreev states in graphene},
author = {Bretheau, Landry and Wang, Joel I-Jan and Pisoni, Riccardo and Watanabe, Kenji and Taniguchi, Takashi and Jarillo-Herrero, Pablo},
abstractNote = {A normal conductor placed in good contact with a superconductor can inherit its remarkable electronic properties. This proximity effect microscopically originates from the formation in the conductor of entangled electron–hole states, called Andreev states. Spectroscopic studies of Andreev states have been performed in just a handful of systems. The unique geometry, electronic structure and high mobility of graphene make it a novel platform for studying Andreev physics in two dimensions. In this paper, we use a full van der Waals heterostructure to perform tunnelling spectroscopy measurements of the proximity effect in superconductor–graphene–superconductor junctions. The measured energy spectra, which depend on the phase difference between the superconductors, reveal the presence of a continuum of Andreev bound states. Moreover, our device heterostructure geometry and materials enable us to measure the Andreev spectrum as a function of the graphene Fermi energy, showing a transition between different mesoscopic regimes. Furthermore, by experimentally introducing a novel concept, the supercurrent spectral density, we determine the supercurrent–phase relation in a tunnelling experiment, thus establishing the connection between Andreev physics at finite energy and the Josephson effect. Finally, this work opens up new avenues for probing exotic topological phases of matter in hybrid superconducting Dirac materials.},
doi = {10.1038/NPHYS4110},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1473905}, journal = {Nature Physics},
issn = {1745-2473},
number = 8,
volume = 13,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon May 01 00:00:00 EDT 2017},
month = {Mon May 01 00:00:00 EDT 2017}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record

Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 58 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Save / Share:

Works referenced in this record:

Exciting Andreev pairs in a superconducting atomic contact
journal, July 2013


Specular Andreev Reflection in Graphene
journal, August 2006


Scanning tunnelling microscopy and spectroscopy of ultra-flat graphene on hexagonal boron nitride
journal, February 2011


Ballistic Josephson junctions in edge-contacted graphene
journal, July 2015


Density of states and the energy gap in Andreev billiards
journal, September 1998


Andreev bound states in supercurrent-carrying carbon nanotubes revealed
journal, November 2010


Transport through Andreev bound states in a graphene quantum dot
journal, February 2011


Josephson current through a superconducting quantum point contact shorter than the coherence length
journal, June 1991


Supercurrent in the quantum Hall regime
journal, May 2016


Spatially resolved edge currents and guided-wave electronic states in graphene
journal, November 2015


Exotic non-Abelian anyons from conventional fractional quantum Hall states
journal, January 2013


Boundary Effects in Superconductors
journal, January 1964


Josephson transport in complex mesoscopic structures
journal, December 1996


Tunneling Spectroscopy of Quasiparticle Bound States in a Spinful Josephson Junction
journal, May 2013


Dc Josephson effect and Andreev reflection
journal, April 1991


Possible new effects in superconductive tunnelling
journal, July 1962


Reversing the direction of the supercurrent in a controllable Josephson junction
journal, January 1999


Electronic transport in two-dimensional graphene
journal, May 2011


Quantum oscillations of the critical current and high-field superconducting proximity in ballistic graphene
journal, December 2015


Scanning tunneling spectroscopy of proximity superconductivity in epitaxial multilayer graphene
journal, January 2016


Bipolar supercurrent in graphene
journal, March 2007


One-Dimensional Electrical Contact to a Two-Dimensional Material
journal, October 2013


Josephson current and multiple Andreev reflections in graphene SNS junctions
journal, May 2008


Tunable Graphene dc Superconducting Quantum Interference Device
journal, January 2009


Mesoscopic Superconducting–Normal Metal–Superconducting Transistor
journal, August 1998


Direct Observation of the Transition from the Conventional Superconducting State to the π State in a Controllable Josephson Junction
journal, October 2002


The electronic properties of graphene
journal, January 2009


Transmission formalism for supercurrent flow in multiprobe superconductor-semiconductor-superconductor devices
journal, July 1991


Electronic Transport of Encapsulated Graphene and WSe 2 Devices Fabricated by Pick-up of Prepatterned hBN
journal, February 2015


Observation of electron–hole puddles in graphene using a scanning single-electron transistor
journal, November 2007


Specular interband Andreev reflections at van der Waals interfaces between graphene and NbSe2
journal, December 2015


Nonequilibrium Josephson effect in mesoscopic ballistic multiterminal SNS junctions
journal, July 2000


Phase Controlled Superconducting Proximity Effect Probed by Tunneling Spectroscopy
journal, May 2008


Isospin Pomeranchuk effect in twisted bilayer graphene
journal, April 2021


The electronic properties of graphene
text, January 2007


Exciting Andreev pairs in a superconducting atomic contact
text, January 2013


Ballistic Josephson junctions in edge-contacted graphene
text, January 2015


Works referencing / citing this record:

Infrared-Sensitive Memory Based on Direct-Grown MoS 2 -Upconversion-Nanoparticle Heterostructure
journal, October 2018


Unconventional superconductivity in magic-angle graphene superlattices
journal, March 2018


A ballistic graphene superconducting microwave circuit
journal, October 2018


Coherent control of a hybrid superconducting circuit made with graphene-based van der Waals heterostructures
journal, December 2018


Topological superconductivity in a phase-controlled Josephson junction
journal, April 2019


1/f critical current noise in short ballistic graphene Josephson junctions
journal, January 2020


Gate-tunable quantum dot in a high quality single layer MoS2 van der Waals heterostructure
journal, March 2018


Defects in h-BN tunnel barrier for local electrostatic probing of two dimensional materials
journal, September 2018


Probing the electronic structure of graphene near and far from the Fermi level via planar tunneling spectroscopy
journal, October 2019


Proximity coupling in superconductor-graphene heterostructures
journal, March 2018


Engineering the Floquet spectrum of superconducting multiterminal quantum dots
journal, July 2019


FeTe 0.55 Se 0.45 van der Waals tunneling devices
journal, August 2019


Andreev reflection in ballistic normal metal/graphene/superconductor junctions
journal, October 2019


Vortex-lattice structure and topological superconductivity in the quantum Hall regime
journal, January 2020


Nonlocal Andreev entanglements and triplet correlations in graphene with spin-orbit coupling
journal, October 2017


Nonequilibrium properties of graphene probed by superconducting tunnel spectroscopy
journal, February 2019


Fine energy splitting of overlapping Andreev bound states in multiterminal superconducting nanostructures
journal, October 2019


Local density of states in clean two-dimensional superconductor–normal metal–superconductor heterostructures
journal, October 2019


Electrically tunable low-density superconductivity in a monolayer topological insulator
journal, October 2018


Transport signatures of an Andreev molecule in a quantum dot–superconductor–quantum dot setup
journal, January 2019


Nonequilibrium properties of graphene probed by superconducting tunnel spectroscopy
text, January 2019


Interactions and Magnetotransport through Spin-Valley Coupled Landau Levels in Monolayer
text, January 2018


Engineering the Floquet spectrum of superconducting multiterminal quantum dots
text, January 2019


1/f critical current noise in short ballistic graphene Josephson junctions
text, January 2019