Imaging chiral Andreev reflection in the presence of Rashba spin-orbit coupling

In this work, we theoretically study transverse magnetic focusing in a two-dimensional electron gas with strong Rashba spin-orbit interaction when proximitized along its edge with a superconducting contact. The presence of superconducting correlations leads to the emergence of chiral Andreev edge states which-within this weak magnetic field regime-may be pictured as states following semiclassical skipping orbits with an alternating electron-hole nature. The spin-orbit-induced splitting of the Fermi surface causes these carriers to move along cyclotron orbits with different radii, allowing for their spatial spin separation. When Andreev reflection takes place at the superconducting lead, scattered carriers flip both their charge and spin, generating distinguishable features in the transport properties of the device. In particular, we report a notable enhancement of the separation between the spin-split focal points, which scales linearly with the number of Andreev scattering events at the anomalous terminal. We support our results by calculating conductance maps to arbitrary points in the sample that provide a complete image of the ballistic electron-hole cyclotron paths.

Automated summary

This work theoretically studies the transverse magnetic focusing in a two-dimensional electron gas with strong Rashba spin-orbit interaction when proximitized with a superconducting contact along its edge. It shows the emergence of chiral Andreev edge states in the presence of superconducting correlations, which exhibit semiclassical skipping orbits in a weak magnetic field regime. The results demonstrate an enhancement of the spin-split focal points separation, which scales linearly with the number of Andreev scattering events at the anomalous terminal, by calculating conductance maps to arbitrary points in the sample.