Nanomechanics driven by the superconducting proximity effect

Abstract

We consider a nanoelectromechanical weak link composed of a carbon nanotube suspended above a trench in a normal metal electrode and positioned in a gap between two superconducting leads. The nanotube is treated as a movable single-level quantum dot in which the position-dependent superconducting order parameter is induced as a result of Cooper pair tunneling. We show that in such a system, self-sustained bending vibrations can emerge if a bias voltage is applied between normal and superconducting electrodes. The occurrence of this effect crucially depends on the direction of the bias voltage and the relative position of the quantum dot level. We also demonstrate that the nanotube vibrations strongly affect the dc current through the system, a characteristic that can be used for the direct experimental observation of the predicted phenomenon.

Cooling of nanomechanical vibrations by Andreev injection

“…This situation corresponds to mechanical instability of the system and it was discussed in Ref. [21]. In what follows we consider the vibronic (stable) regime, when κ = −1, ε d > 0 (the same for κ = +1, ε d < 0).…”

“…In the paper [21] a nanoelectromechanical weak link composed of the carbon nanotube suspended above a trench in a normal metal electrode and positioned in a gap between two superconducting leads, was considered. Such a setup is a generalization of the experimentally implemented one [22], where a CNT suspended between normal and superconducting electrodes.…”