Josephson Current through a Semiconductor Nanowire: effect of strong spin-orbit coupling and Zeeman splitting

TL;DR

This paper develops a theoretical framework to analyze the Josephson effect in semiconductor nanowires with strong spin-orbit coupling and Zeeman splitting, revealing how these factors influence supercurrent and bound states.

Contribution

It introduces a combined analytical and numerical approach to understand the impact of spin-orbit coupling and magnetic fields on Josephson transport in nanowires.

Findings

Josephson current shows unique features due to spin-orbit and Zeeman effects.

Disorder affects Andreev bound states and local density of states.

The theory predicts measurable signatures in supercurrent behavior.

Abstract

We study coherent transport through a semiconductor nanowire in the presence of spin-orbit coupling and Zeeman splitting due to an applied magnetic field. By employing analytical and numerical techniques we develop a theory for the Josephson effect in the superconductor-semiconductor nanowire-superconductor structure. We show that Josephson current through the clean semiconductor nanowire exhibits a number of interesting features due to the interplay between the Zeeman splitting and spin-orbit coupling. We also study effect how disorder in the nanowire affects Andreev bound-state energy spectrum and calculate local density of states at the junction.