ϕ0 junction and Josephson diode effect in high-temperature superconductors

Guo-Liang Guo; Xiao-Hong Pan; Xin Liu

doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.112.014509

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ϕ0 junction and Josephson diode effect in high-temperature superconductors

Guo-Liang Guo, Xiao-Hong Pan, Xin Liu

DOI 10.1103/PhysRevB.112.014509 · Physical Review B

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Abstract

Motivated by recent progress in both the Josephson diode effect (JDE) in twisted bilayers of high-Tc cuprate superconductors and exotic pairing function in high-Tc cuprate Josephson junction, we propose to realize the field-free JDE in a c-axis s-wave/d-wave/s-wave (s−d−s) superconductor junction which can serve as a new phase-sensitive test of pairing symmetry in the high-temperature superconductors. The interlayer coupling between s- and d-wave superconductors can induce an effective d+is superconducting state, spontaneously breaking time-reversal symmetry. The asymmetric s−d interlayer couplings break the inversion symmetry. Remarkably, breaking these two symmetries leads to a ϕ0 junction but is unnecessary to generate JDE. The emergence of the JDE in this junction depends on the C4 rotational symmetry breaking. Interestingly, although breaking C4 rotational symmetry does not affect either time-reversal or inversion symmetries, it can control the magnitude and polarity of diode efficiency. Furthermore, we propose observing C4 symmetry-breaking controlled JDE through asymmetric Shapiro steps. Our work suggests a JDE mechanism that relies on high-temperature d-wave pairing, which could inversely contribute to a potential experimental method for detecting the unconventional pairing symmetry in superconductors.