A team headed by Professor Zheng Hao and Academician Jia Jinfeng from the Institute of Theoretical Physics and the School of Physics and Astronomy at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, in collaboration with their partners, has achieved a significant milestone in the exploration of ultrathin metallic islands and superconducting heterostructures. On August 11, 2025, their groundbreaking work was published in Physical Review Letters, titled "Quantum-Size Effect Induced Andreev Bound States in Ultrathin Metallic Islands Proximitized by a Superconductor." The team successfully observed Andreev bound states by harnessing the intrinsic quantum size effect and conducted an in-depth analysis of their spatial fluctuation characteristics.
