Josephson Current through Semiconductor Nanowire with Spin-Orbit Interaction in Magnetic Field

Abstract

We theoretically study the DC Josephson effect of a semiconductor nanowire (NW) with strong spin-orbit interaction when a magnetic field is applied parallel to the NW. We adopt a model of single scatterer in a quasi-one-dimensional system for the case of short junctions where the size of normal region is much smaller than the coherent length. In the case of single conduction channel in the model, we obtain analytical expressions for the energy levels of Andreev bound states, $E_n$, and supercurrent $I$, as a function of phase difference $\phi$ between two superconductors. We show the 0-$\pi$ transition by tuning the magnetic field. In the case of more than one conduction channel, we find that $E_n(-\phi )\ne E_n(\phi )$ by the interplay between the spin-orbit interaction and Zeeman effect, which results in finite supercurrent at $\phi =0$ (anomalous Josephson current) and direction-dependent critical current.

Submitted to J. Phys. Soc. Jpn

References in corpus (11)

• Tunable Supercurrent Through Semiconductor Nanowires
• Supercurrent reversal in quantum dots
• Direct coupling between magnetism and superconducting current in Josephson Phi junction
• Direct Measurement of the Spin-Orbit Interaction in a Two-Electron InAs Nanowire Quantum Dot
• Anomalous Josephson Current in Junctions with Spin-Polarizing Quantum Point Contacts
• Experimental evidence of a ϕ Josephson junction
• Josephson current through a quantum dot with spin-orbit coupling
• Splitting of Andreev levels in a Josephson junction by spin-orbit coupling
• Spin-Hall effects in a Josephson contact
• Multiple Andreev reflections in a quantum dot coupled to superconductors: Effects of spin-orbit coupling
• Dynamics of coupled spins in quantum dots with strong spin-orbit interaction