Perpendicular Andreev reflection: Solid-state signature of black-hole horizon

Abstract

Beenakker noticed that the peculiar band structure of Dirac fermions in 2D solids allows for the specular Andreev reflection in these systems which has no analogue in other 2D electron systems. An interesting deformation of the Dirac equation in the solid state is to tilt it which has now materials realization. In this work we report another peculiar feature of the Andreev reflection in tilted 2D Dirac cone systems. The tilt deformation of the Dirac equation is characterized by two parameters ${\boldsymbol\zeta}=\zeta(\cos\theta,\sin\theta)$. We show that when the tilt parameter is tuned to its "horizon value" $\zeta=1$, irrespective of the incidence angle of electrons, the Andreev reflected hole is always reflected {\em perpendicular} to the interface. Furthermore at the horizon value, if the tilt direction is perpendicular to the interface, the conductance will be energy independent for the entire sub gap energies. For generic tilt $\boldsymbol\zeta$, the tilt dependence of the conductance line shape can be used to extract information about the direction and magnitude of the tilt.