English

Anomalous Josephson effect induced by spin-orbit interaction and Zeeman effect in semiconductor nanowires

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics 2014-05-09 v2 Superconductivity

Abstract

We investigate theoretically the Josephson junction of semiconductor nanowire with strong spin-orbit (SO) interaction in the presence of magnetic field. By using a tight-binding model, the energy levels EnE_n of Andreev bound states are numerically calculated as a function of phase difference φ\varphi between two superconductors in the case of short junctions. The DC Josephson current is evaluated from the Andreev levels. In the absence of SO interaction, a 00-π\pi transition due to the magnetic field is clearly observed. In the presence of SO interaction, the coexistence of SO interaction and Zeeman effect results in En(φ)En(φ)E_n (-\varphi) \ne E_n (\varphi), where the anomalous Josephson current flows even at φ=0\varphi =0. In addition, the direction-dependence of critical current is observed, in accordance with experimental results.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1402.0305,
  title  = {Anomalous Josephson effect induced by spin-orbit interaction and Zeeman effect in semiconductor nanowires},
  author = {Tomohiro Yokoyama and Mikio Eto and Yuli V. Nazarov},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1402.0305},
  year   = {2014}
}