Superconducting diode effect sign change in epitaxial Al-InAs Josephson junctions

Abstract There has recently been a surge of interest in studying the superconducting diode effect (SDE) partly due to the possibility of uncovering the intrinsic properties of a material system. A change of sign of the SDE at finite magnetic field has previously been attributed to different mechanis...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Neda Lotfizadeh, William F. Schiela, Barış Pekerten, Peng Yu, Bassel Heiba Elfeky, William M. Strickland, Alex Matos-Abiague, Javad Shabani
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2024-04-01
Series:Communications Physics
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s42005-024-01618-5
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Summary:Abstract There has recently been a surge of interest in studying the superconducting diode effect (SDE) partly due to the possibility of uncovering the intrinsic properties of a material system. A change of sign of the SDE at finite magnetic field has previously been attributed to different mechanisms. Here, we observe the SDE in epitaxial Al-InAs Josephson junctions with strong Rashba spin-orbit coupling (SOC). We show that this effect strongly depends on the orientation of the in-plane magnetic field. In the presence of a strong magnetic field, we observe a change of sign in the SDE. Simulation and measurement of supercurrent suggest that depending on the superconducting widths, W S, this sign change may not necessarily be related to 0–π or topological transitions. We find that the strongest sign change in junctions with narrow W S is consistent with SOC-induced asymmetry of the critical current under magnetic-field inversion, while in wider W S, the sign reversal could be related to 0–π transitions and topological superconductivity.
ISSN:2399-3650