Steady Floquet–Andreev states in graphene Josephson junctions

Abstract

© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.Engineering quantum states through light–matter interaction has created a paradigm in condensed-matter physics. A representative example is the Floquet–Bloch state, which is generated by time-periodically driving the Bloch wavefunctions in crystals. Previous attempts to realize such states in condensed-matter systems have been limited by the transient nature of the Floquet states produced by optical pulses1–3, which masks the universal properties of non-equilibrium physics. Here we report the generation of steady Floquet–Andreev states in graphene Josephson junctions by continuous microwave application and direct measurement of their spectra by superconducting tunnelling spectroscopy. We present quantitative analysis of the spectral characteristics of the Floquet–Andreev states while varying the phase difference of the superconductors, the temperature, the microwave frequency and the power. The oscillations of the Floquet–Andreev-state spectrum with phase difference agreed with our theoretical calculations. Moreover, we confirmed the steady nature of the Floquet–Andreev states by establishing a sum rule of tunnelling conductance4, and analysed the spectral density of Floquet states depending on Floquet interaction strength. This study provides a basis for understanding and engineering non-equilibrium quantum states in nanodevices.