Josephson φ_0-junction in nanowire quantum dots

Abstract

The Josephson effect describes supercurrent flowing through a junction connecting two superconducting leads by a thin barrier. This current is driven by a superconducting phase difference ϕ between the leads. In the presence of chiral and time-reversal symmetry of the Cooper pair tunnelling process2, the current is strictly zero when ϕ vanishes. Only if these underlying symmetries are broken can the supercurrent for ϕ = 0 be finite. This corresponds to a ground state of the junction being offset by a phase ϕ_0, different from 0 or π. Here, we report such a Josephson ϕ0-junction based on a nanowire quantum dot. We use a quantum interferometer device to investigate phase offsets and demonstrate that ϕ_0 can be controlled by electrostatic gating. Our results may have far-reaching implications for superconducting flux- and phase-defined quantum bits as well as for exploring topological superconductivity in quantum dot systems.