Andreev Scattering Driven Surface Photogalvanic Effect

V. M. Kovalev; I. G. Savenko

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arXiv · 2610.27683

Andreev Scattering Driven Surface Photogalvanic Effect

V. M. Kovalev·I. G. Savenko

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Abstract

The surface photogalvanic effect is a powerful tool for generating macroscopic direct currents in centrosymmetric film structures via asymmetric scattering of carriers at film boundaries. Here, we uncover a fundamentally distinct regime of photoinduced transport in normal metal-superconductor heterostructures, in which the macroscopic photocurrent is governed by Andreev scattering at the interface rather than by classical scattering. We demonstrate that the interplay between asymmetric surface scattering and Andreev retroreflection yields a giant, strongly frequency-dependent anomalous photocurrent. Strikingly, the electron-hole conversion at the normal-superconducting interface dictates a macroscopic sign reversal of the photogalvanic current across the superconducting transition, and induces non-analytic spectral kinks exactly at the pairing gap frequency. Our results establish the Andreev reflection-driven surface photogalvanic effect as a platform for optical control of superconducting correlations and suggest a direct, non-invasive spectroscopic probe for gap dynamics in hybrid quantum devices.

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V. M. Kovalev, I. G. Savenko. 2026-10-20. Andreev Scattering Driven Surface Photogalvanic Effect. https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.27683

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