Efficiency of the superconducting diode effect of pair-density-wave states in two-dimensional $d$-wave altermagnets

Abstract: We systematically study the efficiency of the intrinsic superconducting diode effect of several pair-density-wave states that can emerge in two-dimensional $d$-wave metallic altermagnets. To this end, we investigate several scenarios using an effective minimal microscopic model and Ginzburg-Landau analysis in order to derive the corresponding pairing phase diagrams. In addition, we examine also whether the presence of a Rashba spin-orbit coupling and an applied external magnetic field are beneficial to this effect in these systems. As a consequence, our results add further support to the fact that altermagnetic materials indeed provide a good platform for the pursuit of finite-momentum superconductivity, which can lead to an optimization of the diode efficiency in some physically interesting situations. The latter phenomenon has been recently proposed to be key in improving the applicability of new energy-efficient quantum electronic devices.