Current rectification in junctions with spin-split superconductors

Abstract

Spin-split superconductors exhibit an electron-hole asymmetric spin-resolved density of states, but the symmetry is restored upon averaging over spin. On the other hand, asymmetry appears again in tunneling junctions of spin-split superconductors with a spin-polarized barrier. As demonstrated recently in both theory and experiment, this fact leads to a particularly strong thermoelectric effect in superconductor-ferromagnet structures. In this work we show another important effect stemming from the electron-hole asymmetry - current rectification. We calculate the charge current in spin-polarized tunnel junctions of normal metal and a spin-split superconductor with AC and DC voltage bias. In the DC case, the I-V curve is not fully antisymmetric and has a voltage-symmetric component due to spin polarization. This translates to the existence of a rectified current in the AC case, which is proportional to the spin polarization of the junction and strongly depends on the frequency of the applied bias. We discuss possible applications of the rectification effect, including a diode for superconducting electronics and radiation detectors. The analysis of the rectified charge current is supplemented by the discussion of heat current and relevant noise correlators, where electron-hole asymmetry also plays an important role, and which are useful for applications in detectors.

13 pages, 11 figures

References in corpus (7)

• Introduction to topological superconductivity and Majorana fermions
• Nonlocal Thermoelectric Effects and Nonlocal Onsager Relations in a Three-Terminal Proximity-Coupled Superconductor-Ferromagnet Device
• Revealing the magnetic proximity effect in EuS/Al bilayers through superconducting tunneling spectroscopy
• Spin-Resolved Tunneling Studies of the Exchange Field in EuS/Al Bilayers
• Coexistence of superconductivity and spin-splitting fields in superconductor/ferromagnetic insulator bilayers of arbitrary thickness
• Very large thermal rectification in ferromagnetic insulator-based superconducting tunnel junctions
• Influence of photon-assisted tunneling on heat flow in a normal metal - superconductor tunnel junction

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Phase Asymmetry of Andreev Spectra From Cooper-Pair Momentum
• Nonsinusoidal current-phase relations in semiconductor-superconductor-ferromagnetic insulator devices
• Microwave-Tunable Diode Effect in Asymmetric SQUIDs with Topological Josephson Junctions
• Tuning the Josephson diode response with an ac current
• Superconductor-ferromagnet hybrids for non-reciprocal electronics and detectors
• Characterizing the performance of heat rectifiers
• Nonreciprocal superconducting transport and the spin Hall effect in gyrotropic structures