Erwin Schrödinger Center for Quantum Science & Technology (ESQ)

The critical current of a superconductor can be different for opposite directions of current flow when both time-reversal and inversion symmetry are broken. Such non-reciprocal behaviour creates a superconducting diode and has recently been experimentally demonstrated by breaking these symmetries with an applied magnetic field or by the construction of a magnetic tunnel junction. The research team report an intrinsic superconducting diode effect that is present at zero external magnetic field in mirror-symmetric twisted trilayer graphene. Such non-reciprocal behaviour, with sign that can be reversed through training with an out-of-plane magnetic field, provides direct evidence of the microscopic coexistence between superconductivity and time-reversal symmetry breaking. In addition to the magnetic-field trainability, they show that the zero-field diode effect can be controlled by varying the carrier density or twist angle. A natural interpretation for the origin of the intrinsic diode effect is an imbalance in the valley occupation of the underlying Fermi surface, which probably leads to finite-momentum Cooper pairing and nematicity in the superconducting phase.

For more information see:

Zero-field superconducting diode effect in small-twist-angle trilayer graphene.
Jiang-Xiazi Lin, Phum Siriviboon, Harley D. Scammell, Song Liu, Daniel Rhodes, K. Watanabe, T. Taniguchi, James Hone, Mathias S. Scheurer, J.I.A. Li in: Nature Physics, August 2022. DOI: 10.1038/s41567-022-01700-1

Scheurer Group

https://www.uibk.ac.at/en/newsroom/2022/premiere-for-superconducting-diode-without-external-magnetic-fie/