Anomalous Josephson effect in planar noncentrosymmetric superconducting devices

In two-dimensional electron systems with broken inversion and time-reversal symmetries, a Josephson junc-tion reveals an anomalous response: the supercurrent is nonzero even at zero phase difference between two superconductors. We consider details of this peculiar phenomenon in the planar double-barrier configurations of hybrid circuits, where the noncentrosymmetric normal region is described in terms of the paradigmatic Rashba model of spin-orbit coupling. We analyze this anomalous Josephson effect by means of both the Ginzburg-Landau formalism and the microscopic Green's functions approach in the clean limit. The magnitude of the critical current is calculated for an arbitrary in-plane magnetic field orientation, and anomalous phase shifts in the Josephson current-phase relation are determined in terms of the parameters of the model in several limiting cases.

Automated summary

In this study, we investigate the anomalous response of a Josephson junction in two-dimensional electron systems with broken inversion and time-reversal symmetries. By utilizing both the Ginzburg-Landau formalism and the microscopic Green's functions approach, we analyze this phenomenon and calculate the magnitude of the critical current as well as the phase shifts in different cases.