Measurements of the switching supercurrent statistics of a superconducting quantum interference device based on bismuth, a second-order topological insulator, reveal that excited Andreev states are surprisingly long-lived. This protection can be attributed to the splitting of the Andreev pairs carrying the supercurrent along separate crystal hinges of opposite helicities.
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References
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This is a summary of: Bernard, A. et al. Long-lived Andreev states as evidence for protected hinge modes in a bismuth nanoring Josephson junction. Nat. Phys. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-022-01858-8 (2023).
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Characterizing the helical Andreev states of a second-order topological insulator. Nat. Phys. 19, 323–324 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-022-01863-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-022-01863-x
