Field-effect in mesoscopic superconductors
A static electric field can be used to manipulate the superconducting state of metallic superconducting thin films. According to the theory of electrostatic screening, an electrostatic field should not have any effect on either a metal or a superconductor. Our group has now turned this idea on its head and have found that an intense electric field can dramatically affect the superconducting state, be used to control the supercurrent, and, at sufficiently intense fields, quench the superconductivity altogether. The effect might be exploited in novel-concept devices such as supercurrent and Josephson field-effect transistors, as well as classical and possibly even quantum bits.
Coherent caloritronics
Caloritronics is a central issue at the nanoscale, where heat dynamics plays a crucial role in determining the properties of the system and is crucial for the correct operations of the complex quantum networks of efficient quantum computers. Coherent effects on hybrid systems are exploited to have a precise and fast control of the heat at the nanoscale.
Hybrid and topologically-protected systems for solid-state quantum technology
Control and detection of topological phases in hybrid superconductor-semiconductor systems. The emergence of Majorana bound states (MBS) in semiconducting nanowires with strong spin-orbit coupling placed in close proximity to an s-wave superconductor is investigated by means of charge and heat quantum transport properties through normal-superconductor interfaces. Furthermore, a new class of artificial Josephson materials is investigated able to accommodate exotic topologies which support MBS or Weyl singularities.
Ferromagnetic insulator-superconductor systems
A renewed interest in studying ferromagnetic/superconductor structures came with the development of superconducting spintronics. A ferromagnetic insulator in contact with a superconductor is known to induce an exchange splitting of the singularity in the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) density of states (DoS). The magnitude of the splitting is proportional to the exchange field that penetrates into the superconductor.