Tunneling into d-wave superconductors: Effects of interface spin-orbit coupling

TL;DR

This paper investigates how interface spin-orbit coupling influences tunneling conductance in normal metal/d-wave superconductor junctions, revealing significant effects due to Rashba-type interactions.

Contribution

It introduces the extended Blonder-Tinkham-Klapwijk formalism to analyze the impact of interface spin-orbit coupling on tunneling conductance in d-wave superconductor junctions.

Findings

Conductance is significantly affected by interface Rashba spin-orbit coupling.

The asymmetry of the junction enhances the effects of spin-orbit interactions.

The formalism provides a new way to analyze tunneling phenomena in unconventional superconductors.

Abstract

Tunneling conductance of a clean normal metal/d-wave superconductor junction is studied by using the extended Blonder-Tinkham-Klapwijk formalism. We show that the conductance is significantly affected by the interface spin-orbit coupling of the Rashba type, which is inevitably present due to the asymmetry of the junction.