Spin-polarized transport and Andreev reflection in semiconductor/superconductor hybrid structures

Igor Žutić; S. Das Sarma

doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.60.R16322

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Spin-polarized transport and Andreev reflection in semiconductor/superconductor hybrid structures

Igor Žutić, S. Das Sarma

DOI 10.1103/PhysRevB.60.R16322 · Physical Review B

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Abstract

We show that spin-polarized electron transmission across semiconductor/superconductor (Sm/S) hybrid structures depends sensitively on the degree of spin polarization as well as the strengths of potential and spin-flip scattering at the interface. We demonstrate that increasing the Fermi velocity mismatch in the Sm and S regions can lead to enhanced junction transparency in the presence of spin polarization. We find that the Andreev reflection amplitude at the superconducting gap energy is a robust measure of the spin polarization magnitude, being independent of the strengths of potential and spin-flip scattering and the Fermi velocity of the superconductor.