Event Details

The presence of helical surface states in topological insulators (TIs) motivated many theoretical and experimental studies on the transport properties of such two dimensional helical metals. Unfortunately the bulk conducting bands have been shown to greatly challenge experimental observation of unique transport properties of the surface states. In this talk I will show that in the presence of superconductivity, the signature of topological properties is apparent in the features of supercurrent carried through both surface and in the bulk bands of the TIs. The distinct effect of impurities on supercurrent, when compared with their effect on normal current, makes the superconducting phase an interesting platform to study transport in helical metals. I will show that the effect of impurities on supercurrent in helical metals, which resembles the interaction of Neutrinos with electrons, can explain some of puzzling experimental results on Josephson junctions on the edge of TIs.