General Theory of Josephson Diodes
Yi Zhang, Yuhao Gu, Pengfei Li, Jiangping Hu, Kun Jiang
Abstract
Motivated by recent progress in the superconductivity nonreciprocal phenomena, we study the general theory of Josephson diodes. The central ingredient for Josephson diodes is the asymmetric proximity process inside the tunneling barrier. From the symmetry breaking point of view, there are two types of Josephson diodes: inversion breaking and time-reversal breaking. For the inversion breaking case, applying voltage bias could effectively tune the proximity process like the voltage-dependent Rashba coupling or electric polarization giving rise to I c V I c -V and I r I r-. For the time-reversal breaking case, the current flow could adjust the internal time-reversal breaking field like magnetism or time-reversal breaking electron-electron pairing, which leads to I c I c-. All these results provide a complete understanding and the general principles of realizing Josephson diodes, especially the recently found NbSe 2 =Nb 3 Br 8 =NbSe 2 Josephson diodes.