Phys.org  July 28, 2023 Accomplishing unequal supercurrents in the forward and backward directions in superconductors would enable unprecedented functionalities. This nonreciprocity of critical supercurrents is called the superconducting (SC) diode effect. An international team of researchers (USA – MIT, US Army DEVCOM, High School (Alabama, Washington). Switzerland, Spain) demonstrated the strong SC diode effect in conventional SC thin films, such as niobium and vanadium, employing external small magnetic fields. Interfacing the SC layer with a ferromagnetic semiconductor EuS, they further accomplished the nonvolatile SC diode effect reaching an efficiency of 65%. By careful control experiments and theoretical modeling, they demonstrated […]