Andreev-Klein reflection in graphene ferromagnet-superconductor junctions

Malek Zareyan; Hakimeh Mohammadpour; Ali G. Moghaddam

doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.78.193406

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Andreev-Klein reflection in graphene ferromagnet-superconductor junctions

Malek Zareyan, Hakimeh Mohammadpour, Ali G. Moghaddam

DOI 10.1103/PhysRevB.78.193406 · Physical Review B

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Abstract

We show that Andreev reflection in a junction between ferromagnetic (F) and superconducting (S) graphene regions is fundamentally different from the common FS junctions. For a weakly doped F graphene with an exchange field h larger than its Fermi energy EF, Andreev reflection of massless Dirac fermions is associated with a Klein tunneling through an exchange field p−n barrier between two spin-split conduction and valence subbands. We find that this Andreev-Klein process results in an enhancement of the subgap conductance of a graphene FS junction by h up to the point at which the conductance at low voltages eV<Δ/2 is greater than its value for the corresponding nonferromagnetic junction. We also demonstrate that the Andreev reflection can be of retro or specular types in both convergent and divergent ways with the reflection direction aligned, respectively, closer to and farther from the normal to the junction as compared to the incidence direction.