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The field-free Josephson diode in a van der Waals heterostructure

Nature volume 604, pages 653–656 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

The superconducting analogue to the semiconducting diode, the Josephson diode, has long been sought with multiple avenues to realization being proposed by theorists1,2,3. Showing magnetic-field-free, single-directional superconductivity with Josephson coupling, it would serve as the building block for next-generation superconducting circuit technology. Here we realized the Josephson diode by fabricating an inversion symmetry breaking van der Waals heterostructure of NbSe2/Nb3Br8/NbSe2. We demonstrate that even without a magnetic field, the junction can be superconducting with a positive current while being resistive with a negative current. The ΔIc behaviour (the difference between positive and negative critical currents) with magnetic field is symmetric and Josephson coupling is proved through the Fraunhofer pattern. Also, stable half-wave rectification of a square-wave excitation was achieved with a very low switching current density, high rectification ratio and high robustness. This non-reciprocal behaviour strongly violates the known Josephson relations and opens the door to discover new mechanisms and physical phenomena through integration of quantum materials with Josephson junctions, and provides new avenues for superconducting quantum devices.

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Fig. 1: Schematic and superconductivity of the JD at zero field.
Fig. 2: Half-wave rectification and durability test of the JD at 20 mK and zero field.
Fig. 3: Magnetic field dependence of Ic and ΔIc.
Fig. 4: Critical current map and second-harmonic resistance of the JD.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank J. Song, G.-H. Lee and Y. Wang for valuable discussions. We thank P. Wang for support during preparation of Fig. 1a. M.N.A. acknowledges that this research was principally supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Sofia Kovalevskaja Award, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research’s MINERVA ARCHES Award, the Max Planck Society and Delft University of Technology. Y.-J.Z. acknowledges the Shenzhen Science and Technology Project under grant no. JCYJ20180507182246321. S.S.P.P. acknowledges the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 670166), Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation)—project number 314790414 and Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in the framework of the Alexander von Humboldt Professorship endowed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. T.M. acknowledges the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the Johns Hopkins University Catalyst Award.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Heng Wu, Yaojia Wang

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics, Halle, Germany

    Heng Wu, Yaojia Wang, Yuanfeng Xu, Pranava K. Sivakumar, Stuart S. P. Parkin & Mazhar N. Ali

  2. College of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China

    Heng Wu & Yu-Jia Zeng

  3. Kavli Institute of Nanoscience, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

    Heng Wu, Yaojia Wang, Ulderico Filippozzi & Mazhar N. Ali

  4. Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA

    Yuanfeng Xu

  5. Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Chris Pasco & Tyrel McQueen

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Contributions

H.W. and M.N.A. conceived and designed the study. C.P. grew the samples. H.W. and Y.W. fabricated the devices. H.W., Y.W., P.K.S. and U.F. performed the transport measurements. H.W. and Y.W. carried out the data analysis. Y.X. provided theoretical support and discussion. Y.-J.Z. and S.S.P.P. provided facility and instrument support. T.M. and M.N.A. are the principal investigators. All authors contributed to the preparation of the manuscript. 

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Heng Wu or Mazhar N. Ali.

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Extended data figures and tables

Extended Data Fig. 1 Temperature dependent resistance and V-I curves of the Josephson diode.

a, Nb3Br8: crystal structure and inversion center locations. b, Resistance versus temperature measured using an a.c. current of 100 nA. Inset shows the enlarged plot near the superconducting transition of 6.6 K. c, V-I curves with positive sweep measured at different temperatures showing nonlinear behavior appearing below Tc.

Extended Data Fig. 2 V-I curves and half-wave rectification at different temperatures.

a, Positive sweep V-I curve measured at 0.9 K. Both ΔIc and ΔIr are visible. b, Half-wave rectification measured at 0.9 K with an applied current of 7.6 μA at 0.1 Hz. The red dotted lines are the zero lines, showing that junction is in the superconducting state with negative current and switches to the normal state with positive current. c, Positive sweep V-I curve measured at 3.86 K. ΔIc is still visible, while the hysteresis is almost completely suppressed. d, Half-wave rectification measured at 3.86 K with an applied current of 5.14 μA at 0.1 Hz. The red dotted lines are the zero lines. Imperfect rectification is evident with some punch-through error, probably due to thermal fluctuation.

Extended Data Fig. 3 V-I curves with 0-p and 0-n branches measured at different magnetic fields.

Solid lines are 0-n branches (where Ic- was extracted) and dotted lines are 0-p branches (where Ic+ was extracted) corresponding to Fig. 3. ΔIc almost ‘turns off’ at 35 mT.

Extended Data Fig. 4 Sweep-up magnetic field dependence of Ic and ΔIc.

a, Ic+ (orange dots) and |Ic-| (green dots) obtained from the 0-p and 0-n branches of the positive sweep as a function of applied magnetic field. The in-plane magnetic field was swept from negative to positive. b, ΔIc as a function of magnetic field. Inset shows ΔIc as a function of |Ic-| from modulation of magnetic field with the diode effect ‘turning off’ below 2.1 μA. These sweep-up results are nearly identical with the sweep-down results shown in Fig. 3.

Extended Data Fig. 5 Magnetoresistance of NbSe2/Nb3Br8/NbSe2 and FLG/Nb3Br8/FLG heterostructures.

a, Sweep-up and sweep-down magnetoresistances of NbSe2/Nb3Br8/NbSe2 (device 1) with OOP magnetic field at 10 K (above Tc of NbSe2). b, Sweep-up and sweep-down magnetoresistances of device 1 with in-plane magnetic field at 10 K. c, Sweep-up and sweep-down magnetoresistance of FLG/Nb3Br8/FLG (device 6) with OOP magnetic field at 2 K.

Extended Data Fig. 6 Field-free Josephson diode effect of a NbSe2/four-layer Nb3Br8/NbSe2 device.

a, Ic+ and |Ic-|as a function of magnetic field at 20 mK in NbSe2/four-layer Nb3Br8/NbSe2 junction (device 3). b, ΔIc as a function of magnetic field of device 3. c, First harmonic (Rω) and second-harmonic resistances (R2ω) as a function of magnetic field measured at 20 mK with an applied current of 4 μA of device 3.

Extended Data Fig. 7 Field-induced superconducting diode effect in NbSe2/NbSe2 and NbSe2/FLG/NbSe2 heterostructures.

a, V-I curve of NbSe2/NbSe2 junction (device 4) measured at 2 K and 0 T. b, Ic+ and |Ic-| as a function of magnetic field of device 4 at 2 K. c, ∆Ic as a function of magnetic field of device 4. d, ∆Ic as a function of magnetic field of NbSe2/FLG/NbSe2 junction (device 5) measured at 2 K, inset shows the corresponding Ic+ and |Ic-|.

Extended Data Fig. 8 Field-induced superconducting diode effect in NbSe2/NbSe2 heterostructures with a lower critical current.

a, Ic+ and |Ic-| as a function of applied magnetic field of NbSe2/NbSe2 junction (device 7). b, ∆Ic as a function of magnetic field of device 7.

Extended Data Fig. 9 Fraunhofer patterns of NbSe2/Nb3Br8/NbSe2 heterostructures.

a, Fraunhofer pattern of device 1 with sweep-down magnetic field. b, Fraunhofer pattern of device 2. c, ∆Ic as a function of applied magnetic field of device 2 measured at 20 mK, inset shows the corresponding Ic+ and |Ic-|.

Extended Data Fig. 10 Obstructed atomic insulator property of Nb3Br8.

a, charge density distribution in a Nb3Br8 unit cell, the yellow/blue lobes indicate the charge density. b, charge density distribution as a function of unit cell location. Note the charge density does not drop to near zero in every other van der Waals gap.

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Wu, H., Wang, Y., Xu, Y. et al. The field-free Josephson diode in a van der Waals heterostructure. Nature 604, 653–656 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04504-8

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