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arXiv · 1011.5839

Andreev reflection from non-centrosymmetric superconductors and Majorana bound state generation in half-metallic ferromagnets

Mathias Duckheim·Piet W. Brouwer
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Abstract

We study Andreev reflection at an interface between a half metal and a superconductor with spin-orbit interaction. While the absence of minority carriers in the half metal makes singlet Andreev reflection impossible, the spin-orbit interaction gives rise to triplet Andreev reflection, i.e., the reflection of a majority electron into a majority hole or vice versa. As an application of our calculation, we consider a thin half metal film or wire laterally attached to a superconducting contact. If the half metal is disorder free, an excitation gap is opened that is proportional to the spin-orbit interaction strength in the superconductor. For electrons with energy below this gap a lateral half-metal--superconductor contact becomes a perfect triplet Andreev reflector. We show that the system supports localized Majorana end states in this limit.

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Mathias Duckheim, Piet W. Brouwer. 2010-11-26. Andreev reflection from non-centrosymmetric superconductors and Majorana bound state generation in half-metallic ferromagnets. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.83.054513

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