A quantum interferometer for quartets in superconducting three-terminal Josephson junctions

Abstract

An interferometric device is proposed in order to analyze the quartet mode in biased three-terminal Josephson junctions (TTJs), and to provide experimental evidence for emergence of a single stationary phase, the so-called quartet phase. In such a quartet-Superconducting Quantum Interference Device (quartet-SQUID), the flux sensitivity exhibits period ${hc}/{4e}$, which is the fingerprint of a transient intermediate state involving two entangled Cooper pairs. The quartet-SQUID provides two informations: an amplitude that measures a total ``quartet critical current'', and a phase lapse coming from the superposition of the following two current components: the quartet supercurrent that is odd in the quartet phase, and the phase-sensitive multiple Andreev reflection (phase-MAR) quasiparticle current, that is even in the quartet phase. This makes a TTJ a generically "$\theta$-junction". Evidence for phase-MARs plays against conservative scenarii involving synchronization of AC Josephson currents, based on ``adiabatic'' phase dynamics and RSJ-like models.