The on-demand emission of coherent and indistinguishable electrons by independent synchronized sources is a challenging task of quantum electronics, in particular regarding its application for quantum information processing. Using two independent on-demand electron sources, we triggered the emission of two single-electron wave packets at different inputs of an electronic beam splitter. Whereas classical particles would be randomly partitioned by the splitter, we observed two-particle interference resulting from quantum exchange. Both electrons, emitted in indistinguishable wave packets with synchronized arrival time on the splitter, exited in different outputs as recorded by the low-frequency current noise. The demonstration of two-electron interference provides the possibility of manipulating coherent and indistinguishable single-electron wave packets in quantum conductors.
The Josephson effect describes the generic appearance of a supercurrent in a weak link between two superconductors. Its exact physical nature deeply influences the properties of the supercurrent. In recent years, considerable efforts have focused on the coupling of superconductors to the surface states of a three-dimensional topological insulator. In such a material, an unconventional induced p-wave superconductivity should occur, with a doublet of topologically protected gapless Andreev bound states, whose energies vary 4π-periodically with the superconducting phase difference across the junction. In this article, we report the observation of an anomalous response to rf irradiation in a Josephson junction made of a HgTe weak link. The response is understood as due to a 4π-periodic contribution to the supercurrent, and its amplitude is compatible with the expected contribution of a gapless Andreev doublet. Our work opens the way to more elaborate experiments to investigate the induced superconductivity in a three-dimensional insulator.
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