Andreev reflection in two-dimensional relativistic materials with realistic tunneling transparency in normal-metal/superconductor junctions

Abstract

The Andreev conductance across realistic two-dimensional (2D) normal-metal (N)/superconductor (SC) junctions with a relativistic Dirac spectrum is theoretically investigated within the Blonder-Tinkham-Klapwijk formalism with tunable tunneling transparency. It is known that due to the effect of Klein tunneling, impurity potentials at the interface of 2D relativistic materials will enhance (not suppress) the tunneling and therefore are not suitable to model a realistic tunnel junction of these materials. Here, we propose a way to construct a more realistic tunnel junction by adding a narrow, homogeneous local strain, which effectively generates a delta-gauge potential and variations of electron hopping at the interface, to adjust the transparency of the N/SC junction. Remarkable suppression of the Andreev conductance is indeed observed in the graphene N/SC junction as the strength of the local strain increases. We also explore the Andreev conductance in a topological N/SC junction at the two inequivalent Dirac points and predict the distinctive behaviors for the conductance across the chiral-to-helical topological phase transition. The relevance of our results for the adatom-doped graphene is discussed.