Josephson Current through a Semiconductor Nanowire: effect of strong spin-orbit coupling and Zeeman splitting

Meng Cheng, Roman M. Lutchyn

Published 2012-01-09, updated 2012-10-25Version 2

We study coherent transport through a semiconductor nanowire in the presence of spin-orbit coupling and Zeeman splitting due to an applied magnetic field. By employing analytical and numerical techniques we develop a theory for the Josephson effect in the superconductor-semiconductor nanowire-superconductor structure. We show that Josephson current through the clean semiconductor nanowire exhibits a number of interesting features due to the interplay between the Zeeman splitting and spin-orbit coupling. We also study effect how disorder in the nanowire affects Andreev bound-state energy spectrum and calculate local density of states at the junction.