Superconducting diode effect in multichannel Majorana wires

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that multichannel Rashba nanowires can exhibit a robust superconducting diode effect and host topological Majorana modes, with efficiency tunable by external supercurrents and confinement geometry.

Contribution

It reveals how multichannel effects and confinement geometries enhance the superconducting diode effect and enable topological control in Majorana nanowires.

Findings

Diode efficiencies up to ~60% in multichannel nanowires.

Rectangular confinement allows sign reversal of diode efficiency.

Interchannel coupling enables diode response with only transverse Zeeman field.

Abstract

The superconducting diode effect (SDE) enables nonreciprocal dissipationless transport when inversion and time-reversal symmetries are simultaneously broken. Rashba nanowires proximitized by conventional s-wave superconductors provide a minimal setting where spin-orbit coupling and Zeeman fields generate asymmetric finite-momentum pairing. While most studies focus on the single-channel limit, which typically yields small diode efficiencies and requires multiple Zeeman-field components, realistic devices generically host multiple transverse subbands (channels). Here, we investigate the SDE in multichannel Rashba nanowires with harmonic and rectangular quantum-well confinement using a self-consistent Bogoliubov-de Gennes formalism. Both geometries support asymmetric Fulde-Ferrell (FF) states driving pronounced nonreciprocal supercurrents. Crucially, this current-driven FF state stabilizes a topological phase with Majorana zero modes, where Cooper pair momentum is controlled by an externally injected supercurrent, enabling direct topological manipulation. Pairing susceptibility analysis reveals that field-induced asymmetries favor directional Cooper pairing, explaining the diode response's nonmonotonic Zeeman-field dependence. Harmonic confinement yields diode efficiencies of ~60% (interacting channels) and ~55% (independent channels). Notably, interchannel coupling enables a finite response from a transverse Zeeman field alone. Rectangular confinement achieves ~60% efficiency across both regimes, alongside a tunable sign reversal of efficiency when channels interact. These results establish the robustness of the SDE and FF states against transverse confinement variations, highlighting multichannel nanowires as powerful platforms for high-efficiency nonreciprocal transport and current-controlled topological superconductivity.