English

Geometric Phase and Superconducting Flux Quantization

Quantum Physics 2019-08-19 v1

Abstract

In a ring of s-wave superconducting material the magnetic flux is quantized in units of Φ0=h2e\Phi_0 = \frac{h}{2e}. It is well known from the theory of Josephson junctions that if the ring is interrupted with a piece of d-wave material, then the flux is quantized in one-half of those units due to a additional phase shift of π\pi. We reinterpret this phenomenon in terms of geometric phase. We consider an idealized hetero-junction superconductor with pure s-wave and pure d-wave electron pairs. We find, for this idealized configuration, that the phase shift of π\pi follows from the discontinuity in the geometric phase and is thus a fundamental consequence of quantum mechanics.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0704.0803,
  title  = {Geometric Phase and Superconducting Flux Quantization},
  author = {Walter A. Simmons and Sandip S. Pakvasa},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0704.0803},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

5 pages, pdf format