Current-induced re-entrant superconductivity and extreme nonreciprocal superconducting diode effect in valley-polarized systems

Abstract: The superconducting diode effect (SDE) refers to the nonreciprocity of superconducting critical currents for the metal-superconductor transition. Generally, the SDE has a positive and a negative critical current $j_{c\pm}$ corresponding to two opposite directions whose amplitudes are unequal. It is demonstrated that an extreme nonreciprocity where two critical currents can become both positive (or negative) has been observed in a recent experiment. In this work, we theoretically propose a possible mechanism to realize an extreme nonreciprocal SDE. Based on a microscopic theory and a simple valley-polarized model, we demonstrate that depairing currents required to dissolve Cooper pairs can be remodulated under the interplay between the valley polarization and the applied current. Near the disappearance of the superconductivity, the remodulation is shown to induce the extreme nonreciprocity and also the current-induced re-entrant superconductivity where the system has two different critical current intervals. Our study may provide new horizons for understanding the coexistence of superconductivity and spontaneous ferromagnetism and pave a new way to designing the SDE with 100% efficiency.