Andreev reflection at the altermagnet-superconductor interface

Abstract

Altermagnets are a new class of magnetic materials, which exhibit large spin splitting, but due to the combined spin and real space group symmetry protection maintain zero net macroscopic magnetization. Such a characteristic may prove them to be superior in applications in superconducting heterostructures and thus here we investigate the Andreev reflection at the altermagnet/superconductor interface. We compare and contrast altermagnets to other magnetic materials, revealing qualitative differences in the behavior of altermagnetic junction depending on the Fermi surface orientation. We study the resonant states arising in setups with strong tunneling barriers and show that sensitivity to non-magnetic disorder is also dependent on the orientation. Our results provide a building block for altermagnetic superconducting heterostructures such as Josephson $\pi$ junctions with superior properties.