Electrical magnetochiral anisotropy in Rashba superconductors

Abstract

We theoretically investigate the role of higher-order Lifshitz invariants in nonreciprocal charge transport in two-dimensional noncentrosymmetric superconductors with Rashba spin-orbit coupling. In the superconducting state, these symmetry-allowed terms give rise to critical-current nonreciprocity, while in the normal state near the superconducting transition they generate a pronounced magnetochiral anisotropy. Using symmetry-constrained group-theoretical methods, we systematically construct the allowed Lifshitz invariants and derive the corresponding vector structure of the nonreciprocal current. To describe nonlinear transport in the fluctuation regime, we apply a generalized time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau theory that incorporates both the Aslamazov-Larkin contribution from fluctuation-induced Cooper pairs and the Maki-Thompson contribution associated with quantum interference in the Cooper channel. We further analyze the effects of disorder scattering and dephasing on the resulting nonreciprocal response.