Effects of spin orbit coupling on proximity induced superconductivity

Abstract

We investigate the effect of spin orbit coupling on proximity induced superconductivity in a normal metal attached to a superconductor. Specifically, we consider a heterostructure where the presence of interfaces gives rise to a Rashba spin orbit coupling. The properties of the induced superconductivity in these systems are addressed within the tunneling Hamiltonian formalism. We find that the spin orbit coupling induces a mixture of singlet and triplet pairing and, under specific circumstances, an odd frequency, even parity, spin triplet pairs can arise. We also address the effect of impurity scattering on the induced pairs, and discuss our results in context of heterostructures consisting of materials with spin-momentum locking.