Superconducting diode efficiency from singlet-triplet mixing in disordered systems

The superconducting diode effect (SDE) – the nonreciprocity of the critical current in a bulk superconductor – has garnered significant attention due to its potential applications in superconducting electronics. However, the role of disorder scattering in SDE has rarely been considered, despite its potential qualitative impact, as we demonstrate in this work. We investigate SDE in a disordered Rashba superconductor under an in-plane magnetic field, employing a self-consistent Born approximation to derive the corresponding Ginzburg-Landau theory. Our analysis reveals two surprising effects. First, in the weak Rashba spin-orbit coupling (SOC) regime, disorder can reverse the direction of the diode effect, indicated by a sign change in the superconducting diode efficiency coefficient. Second, in the strong Rashba SOC regime, disorder becomes the driving mechanism of SDE, which vanishes in its absence. In this case, we show that disorder-induced mixing of singlet and triplet superconducting orders underlies the effect.