Electrical and thermal transport in antiferromagnet-superconductor junctions
Martin F. Jakobsen, Kristian Naess, Paramita Dutta, Arne Brataas, Alireza Qaiumzadeh
Abstract
We demonstrate that antiferromagnet-superconductor (AF-S) junctions show qualitatively different transport properties than normal metal--superconductor (N-S) and ferromagnet-superconductor (F-S) junctions. We attribute these transport features to the presence of two different scattering processes in AF-S junctions, i.e., specular reflection of holes and retroreflection of electrons. Using the Blonder-Tinkham-Klapwijk formalism, we find that the electrical and thermal conductances depend nontrivially on antiferromagnetic exchange strength, voltage, and temperature bias. Furthermore, we show that the interplay between the N\'eel vector direction and the interfacial Rashba spin-orbit coupling leads to a large anisotropic magnetoresistance. The unusual transport properties make AF-S interfaces unique among the traditional condensed-matter-system-based superconducting junctions.