2021. September 26.
Our colleagues at the BME Department of Physics created a novel artificial molecule in nano-sized electronic circuits, at extremely low temperatures. In natural molecules, electrons can tunnel between neighboring atoms. In this new, artificial, so-called Andreev molecule, the artificial atoms are cca. 1000-times larger than natural atoms, and the tunneling of electrons happens via a superconducting electrode. Interestingly, the superconducting electrode can absorb and re-emit pairs of electrons from and to the molecule This is a feature absent in usual molecules, altering the energy spectrum which was now measured by the BME researchers for the first time. The artificial atoms of the Andreev molecule are created in semiconducting nanowires from the group of Prof. Jesper Nygard (University of Copenhagen). This newly demonstrated artificial molecule is an important step in the development of long-lived quantum bits.