Nonreciprocal charge transport at topological insulator/superconductor interface

Authors
K. Yasuda, H. Yasuda, T. Liang, R. Yoshimi, A. Tsukazaki, K. S. Takahashi, N. Nagaosa, Masashi Kawasaki, Y. Tokura

Abstract
Topological superconductor is attracting growing interest for its potential application to topological quantum computation. The superconducting proximity effect on the topological insulator surface state is one promising way to yield topological superconductivity. The superconductivity realized at the interface between Bi₂Te₃ and non-superconductor FeTe is one such candidate. Here, to detect the mutual interaction between superconductivity and topological surface state, we investigate nonreciprocal transport; i.e., current-direction dependent resistance, which is sensitive to the broken inversion symmetry of the electronic state. The largely enhanced nonreciprocal phenomenon is detected in the Bi₂Te₃/FeTe heterostructure associated with the superconducting transition. The emergent nonreciprocal signal at low magnetic fields is attributed to the current-induced modulation of supercurrent density under the in-plane magnetic fields due to the spin-momentum locking. The angular dependence of the signal reveals the symmetry of superconductivity and indicates the existence of another mechanism of nonreciprocal transport at high fields.

Nature Communications：https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-10658-3