Theory of the supercurrent diode effect in Rashba superconductors with arbitrary disorder

TL;DR

This paper develops a theoretical framework to analyze the supercurrent diode effect in Rashba superconductors with arbitrary disorder, revealing how non-reciprocal critical currents depend on disorder, magnetic field, and temperature.

Contribution

It introduces a quasiclassical approach to quantify the supercurrent diode effect in disordered Rashba superconductors, highlighting the persistence and sign change of the effect under various conditions.

Findings

Strong diode effect without disorder, exceeding 40% non-reciprocity.

Persistence of the diode effect even with strong disorder.

Sign change of the diode effect with increasing magnetic field and disorder.

Abstract

We calculate the non-reciprocal critical current and quantify the supercurrent diode effect in Rashba superconductors with arbitrary disorder, using the quasiclassical Eilenberger equation. The non-reciprocity is caused by the helical superconducting state, which appears when both inversion and time-reversal symmetries are broken. In the absence of disorder, we find a very strong diode effect, with the non-reciprocity exceeding 40% at optimal temperatures, magnetic fields and spin-orbit coupling. We establish that the effect persists even in the presence of strong disorder. We show that the sign of the diode effect changes as magnetic field and disorder are increased, reflecting the changes in the nature of the helical state.