Physics of Josephson diodes formed from 1T-transition metal dichalcogenides

Supercurrent diode effect, the phenomena of possessing non-reciprocal critical currents has attracted a lot of attention since its observation in 2020 due to the prospect of application in low-dissipative electronic devices. In this talk, I will provide a quick overview of the field and elaborate on my own work on the possible mechanisms and origin of the supercurrent diode effect in Josephson junctions of 1T-transition metal dichalcogenides NiTe₂ and PtTe₂, and how the spin-momentum locking in these systems plays an important role in all of these. I shall also discuss the pitfalls that can lead to a Josephson diode effect through an extrinsic mechanism in the junction and how this can be minimized in order to study the underlying intrinsic effect or utilized to create Josephson diodes from generic materials.