Field-Tunable 0-π-Transitions in SnTe Topological Crystalline Insulator SQUIDs

Overview

Journal Sci Rep

Specialty Science

Date 2019 Feb 15

PMID 30760767

Authors

Joachim Schonle

Kiril Borisov

Robin Klett

Denis Dyck

Franck Balestro

Gunter Reiss

Wolfgang Wernsdorfer

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The manifestation of spin-orbit interactions, long known to dramatically affect the band structure of heavy-element compounds, governs the physics in the surging class of topological matter. A particular example is found in the new family of topological crystalline insulators. In this systems transport occurs at the surfaces and spin-momentum locking yields crystal-symmetry protected spin-polarized transport. We investigated the current-phase relation of SnTe thin films connected to superconducting electrodes to form SQUID devices. Our results demonstrate that an assisting in-plane magnetic field component can induce 0-π-transitions. We attribute these findings to giant g-factors and large spin-orbit coupling of SnTe topological crystalline insulator, which provides a new platform for investigation of the interplay between spin-orbit physics and topological transport.

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