Issue |
EPL
Volume 110, Number 5, June 2015
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | 57005 | |
Number of page(s) | 6 | |
Section | Condensed Matter: Electronic Structure, Electrical, Magnetic and Optical Properties | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/110/57005 | |
Published online | 25 June 2015 |
Theory of diffusive φ0 Josephson junctions in the presence of spin-orbit coupling
1 Centro de Física de Materiales (CFM-MPC), Centro Mixto CSIC-UPV/EHU - Manuel de Lardizabal 5, E-20018 San Sebastián, Spain
2 Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC) - Manuel de Lardizabal 4, E-20018 San Sebastián, Spain
3 Nano-Bio Spectroscopy group, Departamento de Física de Materiales, Universidad del País Vasco Av. Tolosa 72, E-20018 San Sebastián, Spain
4 IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science - E-48011 Bilbao, Spain
Received: 8 April 2015
Accepted: 4 June 2015
We present a full microscopic theory to describe the Josephson current through an extended superconductor-normal metal-superconductor (SNS) diffusive junction with an intrinsic spin-orbit coupling (SOC) in the presence of a spin-splitting field h. We demonstrate that the ground state of the junction corresponds to a finite intrinsic phase difference between the superconductor electrodes provided that both h and the SOC-induced SU(2) Lorentz force are finite. The nontrivial
is closely related to the appearance of an equilibrium spin current in the normal metal with the spin projection parallel to the exchange field direction. In the particular case of a Rashba SOC we present analytic and numerical results for
as a function of the strengths of the spin fields, the length of the junction, the temperature and the properties of SN interfaces.
PACS: 74.50.+r – Tunneling phenomena; Josephson effects / 74.45.+c – Proximity effects; Andreev reflection; SN and SNS junctions / 75.70.Tj – Spin-orbit effects
© EPLA, 2015
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