The zero-bias conductance peak in d-wave superconductors splits in an applied magnetic field. In this work, the experimentally observed universal relation delta ~ B0^(1/2) for strip-shaped samples is derived analytically based on the long-ranged current contributions from Abrikosov vortices inside the sample. The result is in full agreement with observed key properties, and features such as hysteresis effects are made accessible. Employing a magnetically induced additional order parameter is not necessary for the physical explanation of the universal relation.
We consider the separate spin channel contributions to the charge conductance in superconducting/ferromagnetic spin valve $F_1/N/F_2/S$ structures. We find that the up- and down-spin conductance contributions may have a very different behavior in the subgap bias region (i.e. there is a spin-split conductance). This leads to a subgap %EM2 added spin-split conductance peak in the total conductance. This peak behavior, which can be prominent also in $N/F/S$ systems, is strongly dependent, in a periodic way, on the thickness of the intermediate ferromagnetic layer. We study this phenomenon using a…
Mesoscopic point contacts between elemental metals and the topological 3D Dirac semimetal Cd$_3$As$_2$ have been recently shown to be superconducting with unconventional pairing while Cd$_3$As$_2$ itself does not superconduct. Here we show that the same superconducting phase at mesoscopic interfaces on Cd$_3$As$_2$ can be induced with a known conventional superconductor Nb where a pronounced zero-bias conductance peak is observed which undergoes splitting in energy under certain conditions. The observations are consistent with the theory of the emergence of Andreev bound states (ABS) due to th…
In mean-field descriptions of nodal d-wave superconductors, generic edges exhibit dispersionless Majorana fermion bands at zero-energy. These states give rise to an extensive ground-state degeneracy, and are protected by time-reversal (TR) symmetry. We argue that the infinite density of states of these flat-bands make them inherently unstable to interactions, and show that repulsive interactions lead to edge FM which splits the flat bands. This edge FM offers an explanation for the observation of splitting of zero-bias peaks in edge tunneling in High-Tc cuprate superconductors. We argue that t…
We investigate the subgap transport properties of a S-F-Ne structure. Here S (Ne) is a superconducting (normal) electrode, and F is either a ferromagnet or a normal wire in the presence of an exchange or a spin- splitting Zeeman field respectively. By solving the quasiclassical equations we first analyze the behavior of the subgap current, known as the Andreev current, as a function of the field strength for different values of the voltage, temperature and length of the junction. We show that there is a critical value of the bias voltage V * above which the Andreev current is enhanced by the s…
Tunneling conductance of normal metal / $d_{x^{2}-y^{2}}$-wave superconductor junctions in the presence of broken time reversal symmetry states near interfaces
The Andreev current and the subgap conductance in a superconductor/ insulator/ ferromagnet (SIF) structure in the presence of a small spin-splitting field show novel interesting features (A. Ozaeta et al., Phys. Rev. B 86, 060509(R), 2012). For example, the Andreev current at zero temperature can be enhanced by a spin-splitting field h, smaller than the superconducting gap, as has been recently reported by the authors. Also at finite temperatures the Andreev current has a peak for values of the spin-splitting field close to the superconducting gap. Finally, the differential subgap conductance …
Motivated by a recent experimental report[1] claiming the likely observation of the Majorana mode in a semiconductor-superconductor hybrid structure[2,3,4,5], we study theoretically the dependence of the zero bias conductance peak associated with the zero-energy Majorana mode in the topological superconducting phase as a function of temperature, tunnel barrier potential, and a magnetic field tilted from the direction of the wire for realistic wires of finite lengths. We find that higher temperatures and tunnel barriers as well as a large magnetic field in the direction transverse to the wire l…
A one-dimensional semiconductor nanowire proximitized by a nearby superconductor may become a topological superconductor hosting localized Majorana zero modes at the two wire ends in the presence of spin-orbit coupling and Zeeman spin splitting (arising from an external magnetic field). The hallmark of the presence of such Majorana zero modes is the appearance of a zero-temperature quantized zero-bias conductance peak in the tunneling spectroscopy of the Majorana nanowire. We theoretically study the temperature and the tunnel coupling dependence of the tunneling conductance in such nanowires t…
We show that a topologically trivial zero bias conductance peak (of height 4e^2/h) is produced in semiconductor-superconductor hybrid nanowires due to a suppressed pair potential and/or an excess Zeeman field at the ends of the heterostructure, both of which can occur in experiments. The zero bias peak (ZBP) (a) appears above a threshold parallel bulk Zeeman field, (b) is stable for a range of bulk field before splitting, (c) disappears with rotation of the bulk Zeeman field, and, (d) is robust to weak disorder fluctuations. The ZBPs from the nanowire ends are also expected to produce splittin…
Rashba spin-orbit coupled semiconductor-superconductor hybrid structures in the presence of Zeeman splitting have emerged as the first experimentally realizable topological superconductor supporting zero-energy Majorana bound states. However, recent experimental studies in these hybrid structures are not in complete agreement with the theoretical predictions, for example, the observed height of the zero-bias conductance peak (ZBCP) associated with the Majorana bound states is less than 10% of the predicted quantized value 2e^2/h. We try to understand the sources of various discrepancies betwee…
We investigate theoretically the non-local conductance through a superconducting wire in tunnel contact with normal and ferromagnetic leads. In the presence of an in-plane magnetic field, the superconducting density of states is spin-split, and the current injected from the normal lead is spin-polarized. A non-local conductance that is antisymmetric with the applied voltage can be measured with a ferromagnetic lead. It persists for a distance between the contacts that is larger than both the charge-imbalance relaxation length and the normal-state spin relaxation length. We determine its amplit…
Recent observations of a zero bias conductance peak in tunneling transport measurements in superconductor--semiconductor nanowire devices provide evidence for the predicted zero--energy Majorana modes, but not the conclusive proof for their existence. We establish that direct observation of a splitting of the zero bias conductance peak can serve as the smoking gun evidence for the existence of the Majorana mode. We show that the splitting has an oscillatory dependence on the Zeeman field (chemical potential) at fixed chemical potential (Zeeman field). By contrast, when the density is constant …
We calculate the zero-temperature differential conductance $dI/dV$ of a voltage-biased one-dimensional junction between a nontopological and a topological superconductor for arbitrary junction transparency using the scattering matrix formalism. We consider two representative models for the topological superconductors: (i) spinful $p$-wave and (ii) $s$-wave with spin-orbit coupling and spin splitting. We verify that in the tunneling limit (small junction transparencies) where only single Andreev reflections contribute to the current, the conductance for voltages below the nontopological superco…
By tuning the magnetic flux, the two ends of a 1D topological superconductor weakly coupled to a normal metal as a ring-shaped junction can host split Majorana zero modes (MZMs). When this ring geometry becomes Coulomb blockaded, and the two leads come into contact with the two wire ends, the current moves through the superconductor or the normal metal as an interferometer. The two-terminal interference conductance can be experimentally measured as a function of gate voltage and magnetic flux through the ring. However, a $4π$ periodicity in the conductance-phase relation (often considered the …
The broad tunability of the proximity exchange effect between transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) and chromium iodide (CrI$_3$) heterostructures offers intriguing possibilities for the use of TMDCs in two-dimensional magnetoelectrics. In this work, the influence of the twist angle and the gate electric field on the electric and thermal transport in a TMDC/CrI$_3$ junction is investigated using the Dirac -Bogoliubov-de Gennes equation. We show that significant amounts can be controlled by spin-splitting of band structures due to spin-orbit interaction, and that the exchange-splitting of ba…
The nonlocal conductance and the current cross-correlations are investigated within scattering theory for three-terminal normal metal-superconductor-normal metal (NSN) hybrid structures. The positive cross-correlations at high transparency found by Mélin, Benjamin and Martin [Phys. Rev. B 77, 094512 (2008)] are not due to crossed Andreev reflection. On the other hand, local processes can be enhanced by reflectionless tunneling but this mechanism has little influence on nonlocal processes and on current cross-correlations. Therefore Cooper pair splitting cannot be enhanced by reflectionless tun…
A weak superconducting proximity effect in the vicinity of the topological transition of a quantum anomalous Hall system has been proposed as a venue to realize a topological superconductor (TSC) with chiral Majorana edge modes (CMEMs). A recent experiment [Science 357, 294 (2017)] claimed to have observed such CMEMs in the form of a half-integer quantized conductance plateau in the two-terminal transport measurement of a quantum anomalous Hall-superconductor junction. Although the presence of a superconducting proximity effect generically splits the quantum Hall transition into two phase tran…
