Search arXiv⌕ Search
Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · 2306.00193

Sign reversal diode effect in superconducting Dayem nanobridges

Daniel Margineda·Alessandro Crippa·Elia Strambini·Yuri Fukaya·Maria Teresa Mercaldo·Mario Cuoco·Francesco Giazotto
View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

Supercurrent diodes are nonreciprocal electronic elements whose switching current depends on their flow direction. Recently, a variety of composite systems combining different materials and engineered asymmetric superconducting devices have been proposed. Yet, ease of fabrication and tunable sign of supercurrent rectification joined to large efficiency have not been assessed in a single platform so far. We demonstrate that all-metallic superconducting Dayem nanobridges naturally exhibit nonreciprocal supercurrents under an external magnetic field, with a rectification efficiency up to $\sim 27\%$. Our niobium nanostructures are tailored so that the diode polarity can be tuned by varying the amplitude of an out-of-plane magnetic field or the temperature in a regime without magnetic screening. We show that sign reversal of the diode effect may arise from the high-harmonic content of the current phase relation in combination with vortex phase windings present in the bridge or an anomalous phase shift compatible with anisotropic spin-orbit interactions.

Explore related subjects

cond-mat.supr-concond-mat.mes-hall

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Daniel Margineda, Alessandro Crippa, Elia Strambini, Yuri Fukaya, Maria Teresa Mercaldo, Mario Cuoco, Francesco Giazotto. 2023-11-10. Sign reversal diode effect in superconducting Dayem nanobridges. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42005-023-01458-9

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2026

Superconductivity in MgHCu3 perovskite revisited

We reexamine the crystal structure, electronic structure, lattice dynamics, phonon dispersion, electron-phonon coupling, and superconducting properties of MgHCu3 perovskite using the PBEsol and PBE functionals. This perovskite phase was recently proposed to exhibit superconductivity with the critical superconducting temperature, TC, of 42 K, which falls slightly over the classical 40 K limit for the phonon driven superconductivity. We show that although the crystal and electronic structure of this hypothetical compound are quite robust with respect to the k point mesh and functional used, yet the phonons and phonon related properties are extremely sensitive to the density of the grid chosen as well as functional used for calculations. Correspondingly, the values of the critical superconducting temperature calculated here for different Gaussian broadenings vary in a broad range of ca. 10 to 31 K and they do not exceed the classical limit. We suggest that the properties of this and many other high TC hydrides claimed should be thoroughly scrutinized using a variety of functionals, and benchmarked with experiment, to provide more reliable values of TC.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2026

Different reconstruction pathways toward superconductivity in TaRhTe4 and TaIrTe4 Weyl semimetals

Pressure can drive Weyl semimetals toward superconductivity through qualitatively distinct reconstructions of their lattices and normal-state electronic structures. Here, we report the first observation of superconductivity in compressed TaRhTe4. This finding enables a direct comparison of the distinct reconstruction pathways leading to superconductivity in TaRhTe4 and the previously studied TaIrTe4, both of which belong to the TaXTe4 (X = Rh, Ir) family of type-II Weyl semimetals. For TaRhTe4, high-pressure electrical-resistance, Hall effect, and magnetoresistance measurements, together with synchrotron X-ray diffraction and first-principles calculations, reveal a superconducting transition that emerges near 20 GPa, with onset Tc increasing to approximately 2.6 K at 65.2 GPa and zero resistance achieved above 63 GPa. The onset of superconductivity coincides with a progressive lattice distortion, a strong suppression of the positive magnetoresistance, and a continuous decrease of the Hall coefficient toward zero. Calculations further show that additional electron-like bands cross the Fermi level (EF) and that N(EF) increases upon compression. This evolution contrasts with TaIrTe4, where the Hall coefficient initially increases before reversing its pressure dependence near the superconducting threshold, while the structural anomaly is confined to a narrower pressure interval. This comparison indicates that superconductivity in the TaXTe4 family is not tied to a unique critical pressure or a single Fermi-surface reconstruction, but can emerge through distinct material-specific pathways once pressure sufficiently reconstructs the low-carrier Weyl-semimetal-derived state into a multiband metallic regime.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2026

Electromagnetic Proximity Effects and Spontaneous Currents in Clean Superconducting Heterostructures

When ferromagnets are brought into contact with a superconductor, superconducting proximity effects give rise to a variety of interesting phenomena, including oscillatory singlet Cooper-pair amplitudes and long-ranged odd-frequency triplet correlations induced by the exchange interactions in the ferromagnets. From an electrodynamic perspective, however, it is equally important to understand when and how spontaneous currents can emerge. To investigate the interplay between electromagnetic and conventional superconducting proximity effects, we study clean ferromagnet/ferromagnet/superconductor spin-valve heterostructures in which the relative angle between the two ferromagnetic layers can be tuned. Our approach is based on a self-consistent numerical solution of the coupled Bogoliubov-de Gennes and Maxwell equations, providing a microscopic description capable of resolving physics on atomic length scales. Several notable features emerge. In both the weak- and strong-exchange-field regimes, the central ferromagnetic layer plays a dominant role in generating sizable spontaneous currents when its exchange-field strength is varied. We further find that the resulting electromagnetic response extends across the entire superconducting layer, in sharp contrast to the short-ranged inverse proximity effect. In noncollinear configurations, the electromagnetic proximity effect also reconfigures the local magnetic-field orientation and reduces the angular mismatch between the fields in the two ferromagnetic layers. The long-ranged odd-frequency triplet amplitudes are consequently modified by the orbital response, which alters the underlying quasiparticle states by changing their momentum-space structure. Finally, our framework can be naturally generalized to other superconducting spintronic systems, possibly including Josephson junctions and altermagnet/superconductor heterostructures.

cond-mat.supr-con↗