Thermal superconducting quantum interference proximity transistor

Superconductors are excellent thermal insulators at low temperatures owing to the presence of an energy gap in their density of states1. Through the so-called proximity effect2, superconductors can influence the density of states of nearby metallic or superconducting wires. In this way, the local density of states of a wire can be tuned by controlling the phase bias (φ) imposed across it3. Here we demonstrate a thermal superconducting quantum interference proximity transistor (T-SQUIPT) that enables the phase control of heat currents by exploiting the superconducting proximity effect. Our T-SQUIPT device comprises a quasi-one-dimensional aluminium nanowire forming the weak link embedded in a superconducting ring4,5. Controlling the phase bias by changing the magnetic flux through the ring shows temperature modulations of up to 16 mK, yielding a temperature-to-flux transfer function that reaches approximately 60 mK Φ0–1. We also demonstrate a hysteretic dependence of the local density of states of T-SQUIPTs on the applied magnetic field due to phase-slip transitions. This allows the T-SQUIPT device to operate as a phase-tunable thermal memory6,7, where the information is encoded in the temperature of the metallic mesoscopic island.