arXiv · 1711.06081
Yu-Shiba-Rusinov screening of spins in double quantum dots
Abstract
A magnetic impurity coupled to a superconductor gives rise to a Yu-Shiba-Rusinov (YSR) state inside the superconducting energy gap. With increasing exchange coupling the excitation energy of this state eventually crosses zero and the system switches to a YSR groundstate with bound quasiparticles screening the impurity spin by $\hbar/2$. Here we explore InAs nanowire double quantum dots tunnel coupled to a superconductor and demonstrate YSR screening of spin-1/2 and spin-1 states. Gating the double dot through 9 different charge states, we show that the honeycomb pattern of zero-bias conductance peaks, archetypal of double dots coupled to normal leads, is replaced by lines of zero-energy YSR states. These enclose regions of YSR-screened dot spins displaying distinctive spectral features, and their characteristic shape and topology change markedly with tunnel coupling strengths. We find excellent agreement with a simple zero-bandwidth approximation, and with numerical renormalization group calculations for the two-orbital Anderson model.
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K. Grove-Rasmussen, G. Steffensen, A. Jellinggaard, M. H. Madsen, R. Žitko, J. Paaske, J. Nygård. 2017-11-16. Yu-Shiba-Rusinov screening of spins in double quantum dots. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-04683-x
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