Creation of Spin-Triplet Cooper Pairs in the Absence of Magnetic Ordering

Daniel Breunig*, Pablo Burset, Björn Trauzettel

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

39 Citations (Scopus)
273 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

In superconducting spintronics, it is essential to generate spin-Triplet Cooper pairs on demand. Up to now, proposals to do so concentrate on hybrid structures in which a superconductor (SC) is combined with a magnetically ordered material (or an external magnetic field). We, instead, identify a novel way to create and isolate spin-Triplet Cooper pairs in the absence of any magnetic ordering. This achievement is only possible because we drive a system with strong spin-orbit interaction-the Dirac surface states of a strong topological insulator (TI)-out of equilibrium. In particular, we consider a bipolar TI-SC-TI junction, where the electrochemical potentials in the outer leads differ in their overall sign. As a result, we find that nonlocal singlet pairing across the junction is completely suppressed for any excitation energy. Hence, this junction acts as a perfect spin-Triplet filter across the SC, generating equal-spin Cooper pairs via crossed Andreev reflection.

Original languageEnglish
Article number037701
Pages (from-to)1-6
JournalPhysical Review Letters
Volume120
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 19 Jan 2018
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

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