I will present our work on the superconducting proximity effect induced in crystalline bismuth nanowires, a system with extremely high Rashba spin-orbit coupling. By connecting these nanowires to superconducting electrodes with very high critical field, we have explored the proximity effect over a broad magnetic field range, up to a regime in which the Zeeman energy reaches the spin-orbit and Fermi energies of the Bismuth wires.

I will go into some detail about the complex interference pattern displayed by the critical current as a function of magnetic field. I will argue that it is due to both spin and orbital degrees of freedom, and is the tell-tale sign of low dimensionality, phase coherent conduction regions interfering within the nanowires.

Oscillations du courant critique induit dans le nanofil de bismuth, contacté à deux électrodes en tungstène supraconducteur.

Référence :

Magnetic field resistant quantum interferences in Josephson junctions based on bismuth nanowires
Chuan Li 1, A. Kasumov ^1;5, A. Murani ¹, Shamashis Sengupta ², F. Fortuna ², K. Napolskii ^3;4, D. Koshkodaev⁴, G. Tsirlina ³, Y. Kasumov ⁵, I. Khodos ⁵, R. Deblock ¹, M. Ferrier ¹, S. Gueron ¹ and H. Bouchiat¹,  Phys. Rev. B 90, 245427 (2014).
 

1 LPS, Univ. Paris-Sud, CNRS, UMR 8502, F-91405 Orsay Cedex, France

2 CSNSM, Univ. Paris-Sud, IN2P3, UMR 8609, F-91405 Orsay Cedex, France

3 Faculty of Chemistry, Moscow State University, Russia

4 Department of Material Sciences, Moscow State University, Russia

5 Institute of Microelectronics Technology and High Purity Materials, Chernogolovka, Russia