Speaker
Description
The interplay of spin physics with superconductivity has been studied for decades, with the emphasis varying between exotic spin-dependent order parameters to the spin responses in superconductors. One effect of particular recent interest that brought this interplay into highlight has been the superconducting diode effect originating from this interplay. Until relatively recently it was quite difficult to make precise predictions about the size of this diode effect, driven by a combination of the spin-orbit coupling and exchange field, in the usually realistic setting of disordered superconductors. This changed with the extension of the quasiclassical Usadel equation framework to include the suitable ingredients for the diode effect, primarily by Virtanen, Kokkeler, Tokatly and Bergeret. In my talk I will describe this extension and highlight its implications via the quantitative theory for the diode effect, a prediction for a previously unexplored anomalous vortex, and showing a calculation of an ac spin Hall and spin splitter effects in superconductors.