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The Josephson heat interferometer

Nature volume 492, pages 401–405 (2012)Cite this article

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Abstract

The Josephson effect1 is perhaps the prototypical manifestation of macroscopic phase coherence, and forms the basis of a widely used electronic interferometer—the superconducting quantum interference device2 (SQUID). In 1965, Maki and Griffin predicted3 that the thermal current through a temperature-biased Josephson tunnel junction coupling two superconductors should be a stationary periodic function of the quantum phase difference between the superconductors: a temperature-biased SQUID should therefore allow heat currents to interfere4,5, resulting in a thermal version of the electric Josephson interferometer. This phase-dependent mechanism of thermal transport has been the subject of much discussion4,6,7,8 but, surprisingly, has yet to be realized experimentally. Here we investigate heat exchange between two normal metal electrodes kept at different temperatures and tunnel-coupled to each other through a thermal ‘modulator’ (ref. 5) in the form of a direct-current SQUID. We find that heat transport in the system is phase dependent, in agreement with the original prediction. Our Josephson heat interferometer yields magnetic-flux-dependent temperature oscillations of up to 21 millikelvin in amplitude, and provides a flux-to-temperature transfer coefficient exceeding 60 millikelvin per flux quantum at 235 millikelvin. In addition to confirming the existence of a phase-dependent thermal current unique to Josephson junctions, our results point the way towards the phase-coherent manipulation of heat in solid-state nanocircuits.

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Figure 1: Josephson heat interferometer.
Figure 2: Behaviour of the heat interferometer at 235 mK.
Figure 3: Behaviour of the heat interferometer at different bath temperatures.

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Acknowledgements

We thank F. Taddei for discussions and for a careful reading of the manuscript. We also thank C. Altimiras, C. W. J. Beenakker, M. Di Ventra, T. T. Heikkilä, M. A. Laakso, F. Portier and P. Spathis for comments, and the EC FP7 programme number 228464 “Microkelvin” for partial financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. NEST, Istituto Nanoscienze—CNR and Scuola Normale Superiore, Piazza San Silvestro 12, I-56127 Pisa, Italy ,

    Francesco Giazotto & María José Martínez-Pérez

Authors
  1. Francesco Giazotto
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  2. María José Martínez-Pérez
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Contributions

F.G. conceived and designed the experiment, performed and analysed the measurements, and developed the theoretical model. M.J.M.-P. fabricated the samples, contributed to the measurements, and analysed the data. F.G. wrote the manuscript with input from M.J.M.-P.

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Correspondence to Francesco Giazotto.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Giazotto, F., Martínez-Pérez, M. The Josephson heat interferometer. Nature 492, 401–405 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11702

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