English

Spin-orbital coupling effect on Josephson current through a superconductor heterojunction

Superconductivity 2009-11-13 v1

Abstract

We study spin-orbital coupling effect on the Josephson current through a superconductor (SC) heterojunction, consisting of two s-wave superconductors and a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) layer between them. The Rashba-type (RSOC) and/or Dresselhaus-type (DSOC) of spin-orbital coupling are considered in the 2DEG region. By using the lattice Bogoliubov-de Gennes equation and the Keldysh formalism, we calculate the DC supercurrent flowing through the junction and find that the critical current IcI_c exhibits a damped oscillation with both the strength of SOC and the layer length of 2DEG; especially, the strength ratio between RSOC and DSOC can also induce switching between the 00 state and the π\pi state of the SC/2DEG/SC junction as well. This 00-π\pi transition results from the fact that SOC in a two-dimension system can lead to a pseudo-magnetic effect on the flowing electrons like the effect of a ferromagnet, since the time reversal symmetry of the system has already been broken by two SC leads with different macroscopic phases.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0801.1145,
  title  = {Spin-orbital coupling effect on Josephson current through a superconductor heterojunction},
  author = {Z. H. Yang and Y. H. Yang and J. Wang and K. S. Chan},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0801.1145},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

5 pages, 5 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-21T10:00:33.227Z