Uniaxial spin texture in a superconducting electron gas revealed by exchange interactions.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 42102199.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1126/sciadv.aeb1601 and PMC identifier 13155338.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Two-dimensional (2D) superconductors with spin-textured Fermi surfaces can be a platform for realizing unconventional pairing states and are of substantial interest in the context of quantum information science and superconducting spintronics/orbitronics. We observed an unusual in-plane uniaxial anisotropy in the superconducting 2D electron gas (2DEG) formed at EuO<i><sub>x</sub></i>/KTaO<sub>3</sub> (110) interfaces. This anisotropy is not evident in AlO<i><sub>x</sub></i>/KTaO<sub>3</sub> (110) where the overlayer is nonmagnetic. Our results are consistent with a highly anisotropic "half-Rashba" spin-textured Fermi surface in 2DEGs formed at the KTaO<sub>3</sub> (110) interface that is hidden from external magnetic fields due to a near cancellation between orbital and spin moments but revealed by exchange interactions of the electrons in the 2DEG with Eu moments near the EuO<i><sub>x</sub></i>/KTaO<sub>3</sub> (110) interface. The interactions between the uniaxial spin texture and the magnetic overlayer offer previously unexplored ways to explore the interplay between magnetism and 2D superconductivity.