Magnetoelectric Andreev Effect due to Proximity-Induced Nonunitary Triplet Superconductivity in Helical Metals

G. Tkachov

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.118.016802

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Magnetoelectric Andreev Effect due to Proximity-Induced Nonunitary Triplet Superconductivity in Helical Metals

G. Tkachov

DOI 10.1103/PhysRevLett.118.016802 · Physical Review Letters

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Abstract

Noncentrosymmetric superconductors exhibit the magnetoelectric effect, which manifests itself in the appearance of the magnetic spin polarization in response to a dissipationless electric current (supercurrent). While much attention has been dedicated to the thermodynamic version of this phenomenon (Edelstein effect), nonequilibrium transport magnetoelectric effects have not been explored yet. We propose the magnetoelectric Andreev effect (MAE), which consists in the generation of spin-polarized triplet Andreev conductance by an electric supercurrent. The MAE stems from the spin polarization of the Cooper-pair condensate due to a supercurrent-induced nonunitary triplet pairing. We propose the realization of such a nonunitary pairing and MAE in superconducting proximity structures based on two-dimensional helical metals—strongly spin-orbit-coupled electronic systems with the Dirac spectrum such as the topological surface states. Our results uncover an unexplored route towards electrically controlled superconducting spintronics and are a smoking gun for induced unconventional superconductivity in spin-orbit-coupled materials.