Rashba splitting of Cooper pairs

Abstract

We investigate theoretically the properties of a weak link between two superconducting leads, which has the form of a non-superconducting nanowire with a strong Rashba spin-orbit coupling caused by an electric field. In the Coulomb blockade regime of single-electron tunneling, we find that such a weak link acts as a "spin splitter" of the spin states of Cooper pairs tunneling through the link, to an extent that depends on the direction of the electric field. We show that the Josephson current is sensitive to interference between the resulting two transmission channels, one where the spins of both members of a Cooper pair are preserved and one where they are both flipped. As a result, the current is a periodic function of the strength of the spin-orbit interaction and of the bending angle of the nanowire (when mechanically bent); an identical effect appears due to strain-induced spin-orbit coupling. In contrast, no spin-orbit induced interference effect can influence the current through a single weak link connecting two normal metals.

5 pages 3 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1306.5125

References in corpus (9)

• Superconducting Spintronics
• Coupling of Spin and Orbital Motion of Electrons in Carbon Nanotubes
• Direct coupling between magnetism and superconducting current in Josephson Phi junction
• Anomalous Josephson effect induced by spin-orbit interaction and Zeeman effect in semiconductor nanowires
• Anomalous Josephson Current in Junctions with Spin-Polarizing Quantum Point Contacts
• Bends In Nanotubes Allow Electric Spin Control and Coupling
• Spin Orbit coupling and Anomalous Josephson effect in Nanowires
• Josephson current through a quantum dot with spin-orbit coupling
• Splitting of Andreev levels in a Josephson junction by spin-orbit coupling

Cited by in corpus (18)

• Metallization of Rashba wire by superconducting layer in the strong-proximity regime
• Double quantum dot Cooper-pair splitter at finite couplings
• Control of the Two-Electron Exchange Interaction in a Nanowire Double Quantum Dot
• Splitting efficiency and interference effects in a Cooper pair splitter based on a triple quantum dot with ferromagnetic contacts
• Non-collinear spin-orbit magnetic fields in a carbon nanotube double quantum dot
• Topological superconducting phases and Josephson effect in curved time-reversal-invariant superconductors
• Magnetization Reversal by Tuning Rashba Spin-Orbit Interaction and Josephson Phase in a Ferromagnetic Josephson Junction
• Electric and Magnetic Gating of Rashba-Active Weak Links
• Entanglement-symmetry control in a quantum-dot Cooper-pair splitter
• Magnetoconductance Anisotropies and Aharonov-Casher Phases
• Spin-orbit interactions, time-reversal symmetry, and spin selection
• Rashba spin-splitting of single electrons and Cooper pairs
• Josephson Current in Rashba-based Superconducting Nanowires with Geometric Misalignment
• Electric Aharonov-Bohm effect without a loop in a Cooper pair box
• Spin precession in spin-orbit coupled weak links: Coulomb repulsion and Pauli quenching
• Photo-spintronics of spin-orbit active electric weak links
• Rashba proximity states in superconducting tunnel junctions
• Magnetization near a constriction between BCS superconductors by spin-dependent tunneling