Tunneling processes between Yu-Shiba-Rusinov bound states

Fuente: arXiv
Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Hauptverfasser: Villas, A., Klees, R. L., Morrás, G., Huang, H., Ast, C. R., Rastelli, G., Belzig, W., Cuevas, J. C.
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2022
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
_version_ 1866916082348982272
author Villas, A.
Klees, R. L.
Morrás, G.
Huang, H.
Ast, C. R.
Rastelli, G.
Belzig, W.
Cuevas, J. C.
author_facet Villas, A.
Klees, R. L.
Morrás, G.
Huang, H.
Ast, C. R.
Rastelli, G.
Belzig, W.
Cuevas, J. C.
contents Very recent experiments have reported the tunneling between Yu-Shiba-Rusinov (YSR) bound states at the atomic scale. These experiments have been realized with the help of a scanning tunneling microscope where a superconducting tip is functionalized with a magnetic impurity and is used to probe another magnetic impurity deposited on a superconducting substrate. In this way it has become possible to study for the first time the spin-dependent transport between individual superconducting bound states. Motivated by these experiments, we present here a comprehensive theoretical study of the tunneling processes between YSR bound states in a system in which two magnetic impurities are coupled to superconducting leads. Our theory is based on a combination of an Anderson model with broken spin degeneracy to describe the impurities and nonequilibrium Green's function techniques to compute the current-voltage characteristics. This combination allows us to describe the spin-dependent transport for an arbitrary strength of the tunnel coupling between the impurities. We first focus on the tunnel regime and show that our theory naturally explains the experimental observations of the appearance of current peaks in the subgap region due to both the direct and thermal tunneling between the YSR states in both impurities. Then, we study in detail the case of junctions with increasing transparency, which has not been experimentally explored yet, and predict the occurrence of a large variety of (multiple) Andreev reflections mediated by YSR states that give rise to a very rich structure in the subgap current. In particular, we predict the occurrence of multiple Andreev reflections that involve YSR states in different impurities. These processes have no analogue in single-impurity junctions and they are manifested as current peaks with negative differential conductance for subgap voltages.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2209_09599
institution arXiv
publishDate 2022
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Tunneling processes between Yu-Shiba-Rusinov bound states
Villas, A.
Klees, R. L.
Morrás, G.
Huang, H.
Ast, C. R.
Rastelli, G.
Belzig, W.
Cuevas, J. C.
Superconductivity
Very recent experiments have reported the tunneling between Yu-Shiba-Rusinov (YSR) bound states at the atomic scale. These experiments have been realized with the help of a scanning tunneling microscope where a superconducting tip is functionalized with a magnetic impurity and is used to probe another magnetic impurity deposited on a superconducting substrate. In this way it has become possible to study for the first time the spin-dependent transport between individual superconducting bound states. Motivated by these experiments, we present here a comprehensive theoretical study of the tunneling processes between YSR bound states in a system in which two magnetic impurities are coupled to superconducting leads. Our theory is based on a combination of an Anderson model with broken spin degeneracy to describe the impurities and nonequilibrium Green's function techniques to compute the current-voltage characteristics. This combination allows us to describe the spin-dependent transport for an arbitrary strength of the tunnel coupling between the impurities. We first focus on the tunnel regime and show that our theory naturally explains the experimental observations of the appearance of current peaks in the subgap region due to both the direct and thermal tunneling between the YSR states in both impurities. Then, we study in detail the case of junctions with increasing transparency, which has not been experimentally explored yet, and predict the occurrence of a large variety of (multiple) Andreev reflections mediated by YSR states that give rise to a very rich structure in the subgap current. In particular, we predict the occurrence of multiple Andreev reflections that involve YSR states in different impurities. These processes have no analogue in single-impurity junctions and they are manifested as current peaks with negative differential conductance for subgap voltages.
title Tunneling processes between Yu-Shiba-Rusinov bound states
topic Superconductivity
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2209.09599