Electrically controlled crossed Andreev reflection in altermagnet/superconductor/altermagnet junctions

Abstract

Altermagnets are a novel class of magnetic materials with a significant non-relativistic spin splitting band structure but zero net macroscopic magnetization. We here investigate the interplay between altermagnetism and superconductivity and how the band structures of the altermagnet affect nonlocal transport across altermagnet/superconductor/altermagnet junctions. The two types of spin-momentum coupling: anisotropic and valley-dependent spin-momentum couplings are considered. The pure crossed Andreev reflection (CAR) can be observed by tuning the chemical potential and a switch effect between pure CAR and pure electron elastic cotunneling (EC) can be realized by reversing the Néel vector of the right altermagnet. For the anisotropic spin-momentum coupling, increasing the altermagnetism strength decreases the amplitude of EC while increases that of CAR. Furthermore, a switch between pure EC and pure CAR is predicted for the Néel vectors of the altermagnets in the parallel configuration for the valley-dependent spin-momentum coupling by tuning the on-site energy.