General Theory of Josephson Diodes

Yi Zhang; Yuhao Gu; Pengfei Li; Jiangping Hu; Kun Jiang

doi:10.1103/PhysRevX.12.041013

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General Theory of Josephson Diodes

Yi Zhang, Yuhao Gu, Pengfei Li, Jiangping Hu, Kun Jiang

DOI 10.1103/PhysRevX.12.041013 · Physical Review X

T1

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Abstract

Motivated by recent progress in the superconductivity nonreciprocal phenomena, we study the general theory of Josephson diodes. The central ingredient for Josephson diodes is the asymmetric proximity process inside the tunneling barrier. From the symmetry breaking point of view, there are two types of Josephson diodes: inversion breaking and time-reversal breaking. For the inversion breaking case, applying voltage bias could effectively tune the proximity process like the voltage-dependent Rashba coupling or electric polarization giving rise to Ic(V)≠Ic(−V) and Ir+≠Ir−. For the time-reversal breaking case, the current flow could adjust the internal time-reversal breaking field like magnetism or time-reversal breaking electron-electron pairing, which leads to Ic+≠Ic−. All these results provide a complete understanding and the general principles of realizing Josephson diodes, especially the recently found NbSe2/Nb3Br8/NbSe2 Josephson diodes.

Source-reported materials — not catalogue approval

Formula	Reported Tc (K)	Pressure (GPa)	Type
NbSe2 Archive — visibility unverified Source-occurrence policy only; no material identity or catalogue acceptance is inferred from the formula.	—	Pressure not reported	unknown
Nb3Br8 Archive — visibility unverified Source-occurrence policy only; no material identity or catalogue acceptance is inferred from the formula.	—	Pressure not reported	unknown