The rise of two-dimensional (2D) crystalline superconductors has opened a new frontier of investigating unconventional quantum phenomena in low dimensions. However, despite the enormous advances achieved towards understanding the underlying physics, practical device applications like sensors and detectors using 2D superconductors are still lacking. Here, we demonstrate nonreciprocal antenna devices based on atomically thin NbSe2. Reversible nonreciprocal charge transport is unveiled in 2D NbSe2 through multi-reversal antisymmetric second harmonic magnetoresistance isotherms. Based on this nonreciprocity, our NbSe2 antenna devices exhibit a reversible nonreciprocal sensitivity to externally alternating current (AC) electromagnetic waves, which is attributed to the vortex flow in asymmetric pinning potentials driven by the AC driving force. More importantly, a successful control of the nonreciprocal sensitivity of the antenna devices has been achieved by applying electromagnetic waves with different frequencies and amplitudes. The device’s response increases with increasing electromagnetic wave amplitude and exhibits prominent broadband sensing from 5 to 900 MHz.
Superconductor-ferromagnet interfaces in two-dimensional heterostructures present a unique opportunity to study the interplay between superconductivity and ferromagnetism. The realization of such nanoscale heterostructures in van der Waals (vdW) crystals remains largely unexplored due to the challenge of making atomically-sharp interfaces from their layered structures. Here, we build a vdW ferromagnetic Josephson junction (JJ) by inserting a few-layer ferromagnetic insulator Cr2Ge2Te6 into two layers of superconductor NbSe2. The critical current and corresponding junction resistance exhibit a hysteretic and oscillatory behavior against in-plane magnetic fields, manifesting itself as a strong Josephson coupling state. Also, we observe a central minimum of critical current in some JJ devices as well as a nontrivial phase shift in SQUID structures, evidencing the coexistence of 0 and π phase in the junction region. Our study paves the way to exploring sensitive probes of weak magnetism and multifunctional building-blocks for phase-related superconducting circuits using vdW heterostructures.
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