Chiral symmetry breaking and the Josephson current in a ballistic superconductor–quantum wire–superconductor junction

Abstract

We evaluate the Josephson current through a quasi-1D quantum wire coupled to bulk superconductors. It is shown that the interplay of Rashba spin–orbit interaction and Zeeman splitting results in the appearance of a Josephson current even in the absence of any phase difference between the superconductors. In a transparent junction (D≃1) at low temperatures this anomalous supercurrent Jan appears abruptly for a Zeeman splitting of the order of the Andreev level spacing as the magnetic field is varied. In a low-transparency (D≪1) junction one has Jan∝D under special (resonance) conditions. In the absence of Zeeman splitting the anomalous supercurrent disappears. We have investigated the influence of dispersion asymmetry induced by the Rashba interaction in quasi-1D quantum wires on the critical Josephson current and have shown that the breakdown of chiral symmetry enhances the supercurrent.