Chiral supercurrent through a quantum Hall weak link and its current-phase relation

Yahya Alavirad, Junhyun Lee, Ze-Xun Lin, Jay D. Sau

Published 2018-04-16Version 1

We use a microscopic model to calculate properties of the supercurrent carried by chiral edge states of a quantum Hall weak link. This "chiral" supercurrent is qualitatively distinct from the usual Josephson supercurrent in that it cannot be mediated by a single edge alone, i.e., both right and left going edges are needed. Moreover, chiral supercurrent was previously shown to obey an unusual current-phase relation with period $2 \phi_0=h/e$, which is twice as large as the period of conventional Josephson junctions. We show that the "chiral" nature of this supercurrent is sharply defined, and is robust to interactions to infinite order in perturbation theory. We compare our results with recent experimental findings of Amet et al [Science, 352(6288)] and find that quantitative agreement in magnitude of the supercurrent can be attained by making reasonable but critical assumptions about the superconductor quantum Hall interface. Furthermore, we show that in the parameter regime probed by this experiment, flux dependence of the chiral supercurrent is strongly suppressed. This can explain the paradoxical $ \phi_0=h/2e$ observed periodicity of the supercurrent since in this regime, flux dependent part of the chiral supercurrent becomes comparable to the estimated value of the residual, potential inhomogeneity induced, non-chiral supercurrent. We discuss methods to enhance the flux dependent part of the chiral supercurrent to allow for observation of $2 \phi_0=h/e$ periodicity in future experiments.