Superconducting Diode Effect due to Chiral Meissner Currents in a Hollow Superconducting Helix

TL;DR

This paper predicts a superconducting diode effect caused by geometric chirality in a hollow superconductor, offering a new mechanism for supercurrent rectification with potential applications in quantum circuits.

Contribution

It introduces a novel mechanism for the superconducting diode effect based on geometric chirality, demonstrated through simulations of a hollow superconducting helix.

Findings

Maximum diode efficiency occurs when vortex nucleation begins in one current direction.

Chirality controls the crossover between screening- and vortex-dominated nonreciprocity.

The mechanism is robust and experimentally accessible for 3D superconducting diodes.

Abstract

The superconducting diode effect (SDE) is a key nonreciprocal phenomenon with broad relevance for superconducting electronics. Using time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau simulations, we predict and quantify a superconducting diode effect arising solely from geometric chirality imposed to a conventional superconductor. The helical geometry and magnetic-field-induced screening currents produce inequivalent critical currents for opposite polarities. The diode efficiency reaches a maximum when one current direction first nucleates vortices, revealing a chirality-controlled crossover between screening- and vortex-dominated nonreciprocity. These results establish mesoscopic geometric chirality as a robust mechanism for supercurrent rectification in an achiral superconductor. They suggest an experimentally accessible route towards 3D superconducting diodes for multi-level integrated quantum circuits.