Coherent transfer of Cooper pairs by a movable grain

Superconducting circuits that incorporate Josephson junctions are of considerable experimental and theoretical interest, particularly in the context of quantum computing1,2,3,4,5. A nanometre-sized superconducting grain (commonly referred to as a Cooper-pair box2) connected to a reservoir by a Josephson junction is an important example of such a system. Although the grain contains a large number of electrons, it has been experimentally demonstrated6 that its states are given by a superposition of only two charge states (differing by 2e, where e is the electronic charge). Coupling between charge transfer and mechanical motion in nanometre-sized structures has also received considerable attention7,8,9,10. Here we demonstrate theoretically that a movable Cooper-pair box oscillating periodically between two remote superconducting electrodes can serve as a mediator of Josephson coupling, leading to coherent transfer of Cooper pairs between the electrodes. Both the magnitude and the direction of the resulting Josephson current can be controlled by externally applied electrostatic fields.