Rashba splitting of Cooper pairs

We investigate theoretically the properties of a weak link between two superconducting leads, which has the form of a non-superconducting nanowire with a strong Rashba spin-orbit coupling caused by an electric field. In the Coulomb blockade regime of single-electron tunneling, we find that such a weak link acts as a "spin splitter" of the spin states of Cooper pairs tunneling through the link, to an extent that depends on the direction of the electric field. We show that the Josephson current is sensitive to interference between the resulting two transmission channels, one where the spins of both members of a Cooper pair are preserved and one where they are both flipped. As a result, the current is a periodic function of the strength of the spin-orbit interaction and of the bending angle of the nanowire (when mechanically bent); an identical effect appears due to strain-induced spin-orbit coupling. In contrast, no spin-orbit induced interference effect can influence the current through a single weak link connecting two normal metals.Comment: 5 pages 3 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1306.512

Evolution of the universality class in slightly diluted (1>p>0.8) Ising systems

The crossover of a pure (undiluted) Ising system (spin per site probability p=1) to a diluted Ising system (spin per site probability p<0.8) is studied by means of Monte Carlo calculations with p ranging between 1 and 0.8 at intervals of 0.025. The evolution of the self averaging is analyzed by direct determination of the normalized square widths for magnetization and susceptibility as a function of p. We find a monotonous and smooth evolution from the pure to the randomly diluted universality class. The p-dependent transition is found to be independent of the size (L). This property is very convenient for extrapolation towards the randomly diluted universality class avoiding complications resulting from finite size effects.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, RevTe

Comment on "Strong dependence of the interlayer coupling on the hole mobility in antiferromagnetic La2−x_{2-x}Srx_xCuO4_4 (x<0.02x<0.02)"

Using the experimental data given in Phys. Rev. B70, 220507 (2004), we show that -- unlike the effective coupling discussed in this paper -- the net average antiferromagnetic interlayer coupling in doped lanthanum cuprates depends only weakly on the doping or on the temperature. We argue that the effective coupling is proportional to the square of the staggered magnetization, and does not supply new information about the origin of the suppression of the magnetic order in doped samples. Our analysis is based on a modified version of the equation describing the spin-flip transition, which takes into account the decrease of the staggered moment with temperature and doping.Comment: Phys. Rev. B (in press

Unusual Symmetries in the Kugel-Khomskii Hamiltonian

The Kugel-Khomskii Hamiltonian for cubic titanates describes spin and orbital superexchange interactions between $d^1$ ions having three-fold degenerate $t_{2g}$ orbitals. Since orbitals do not couple along "inactive" axes, perpendicular to the orbital planes, the total number of electrons in $|\alpha >$ orbitals in any such plane and the corresponding total spin are both conserved. A Mermin-Wagner construction shows that there is no long-range spin ordering at nonzero temperatures. Inclusion of spin-orbit coupling allows such ordering, but even then the excitation spectrum is gapless due to a continuous symmetry. Thus, the observed order and gap require more symmetry breaking terms.Comment: 4 pages (two column format with 2 figures), to appear in Phys. Rev. Lett. (submitted on Dec. 2002

Suppression of antiferromagnetic correlations by quenched dipole--type impurities

The effect of quenched random ferromagnetic bonds on the antiferromagnetic correlation length of a two--dimensional Heisneberg model is studied, applying the renormalization group method to the classical non--linear sigma model with quenched random dipole moments. It is found that the antiferromagnetic long range order is destroyed for any non--zero concentration, of the dipolar defects, even at zero temperature. Below a line T ~ concentration, the correlation length is independent of T, and decreases exponentially with concentration. At higher temperatures, itdecays exponentially with an effective stiffness constant which decreases with concentration/T. The results are used to estimate the three--dimensional N\'{e}el temperature, which decays linearly with $x$ at small concentrations, and drops precipitously at a critical concentration. These predictions are compared with experiments on doped copper oxides, and are shown to reproduce successfully some of the prominent features of the data.Comment: 34 pages, LateX, 4 figures Rport-no: TAU

Rashba proximity states in superconducting tunnel junctions

We consider a new kind of superconducting proximity effect created by the tunneling of "spin split" Cooper pairs between two conventional superconductors connected by a normal conductor containing a quantum dot. The difference compared to the usual superconducting proximity effect is that the spin states of the tunneling Cooper pairs are split into singlet and triplet components by the electron spin-orbit coupling, which is assumed to be active in the normal conductor only. We demonstrate that the supercurrent carried by the spin-split Cooper pairs can be manipulated both mechanically and electrically for strengths of the spin-orbit coupling that can realistically be achieved by electrostatic gates.Comment: Accepted for publication in Fiz. Niz. Temp./Low Temp. Phys. vol. 44, no. 6, 2018. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1709.0802