Superconducting diodes from magnetization gradients

The superconducting diode effect may exist in bulk systems as well as in junctions when time-reversal and inversion symmetries are simultaneously broken. Magnetization gradients and textures satisfy both requirements and therefore also allow for superconducting diodes. We concretely demonstrate such possibilities in two-dimensional superconductors. We first consider superconducting Rashba metals in the presence of an inhomogeneous out-of-plane exchange field. Using analytical arguments, we reveal that such magnetization gradients stabilize a helical superconducting ground state, similar to homogeneous in-plane magnetic fields. Our predictions are confirmed by employing self-consistent real-space numerical lattice simulations exemplified through the cases of a uniform magnetization gradient or a ferromagnetic domain wall. Furthermore, by considering a phase difference, we determine the nonreciprocal current-phase relations and explore their parameter dependence. Our calculations show that planar devices with out-of-plane magnetization gradients may be as efficient supercurrent rectifiers as their analogs induced by uniform in-plane fields. In addition, they feature the advantage that by means of tailoring the spatial profile of the out-of-plane magnetization, one may optimize and spatially control the diode effect. Finally, we show that superconducting diodes may become also accessible even in the absence of spin-orbit coupling by means of suitable spatially-varying magnetization fields.