Probing coherent transport in suspended carbon-based molecules.
Proximity induced superconductivity constitutes a powerful tool for the investigation of coherent transport through a normal conductor connected to superconducting electrodes. The conversion of Cooper pairs into Andreev pairs in the normal region is a very sensitive probe of phase breaking events such as spin flip or electron phonon scattering. Experiments are developed along these lines in our mesoscopic physics team in Orsay on various systems such as carbon nanotubes, metallo fullerenes and more recently on graphene. By exploring transport through metallo-fullerenes trapped between suspended superconducting electrodes, we have shown that coherent transfer of Cooper pairs can reveal the magnetic state of the molecules. For long molecules proximity induced superconductivity appears when both thermal length and phase coherence length are of the order of the length of the molecules. In the case of carbon nanotubes suspended between superconducting contacts, it is possible to detect vibration bending modes with very high quality factor from the measurement of the Josephson current. We plan to continue these experiments on suspended nanotubes which combine a high Josephson supercurrent and an electrostatic gate. It is also planned to perform current phase relations on these devices. We also work on transport measurements on graphene foils connected to superconducting electrodes either on substrate either suspended: The low temperature differential resistance presents peaks at sub-multiple values of double the superconducting gap of the tungsten electrodes, a signature of multiple Andreev reflections in the S/Graphene/S junction. On suspended graphene we expect to observe signatures of the phonon modes. The candidate is expected to have skills in nanofabrication techniques as well as low temperature physics (dilution refrigerator).
Applications should be sent by email to: Hélène Bouchiat and Richard Deblock Hélène Bouchiat Laboratoire de physique des solides Bat 510 91405 Orsay France Tel 33169155314 FAX 6086