Reentrant superconductivity at an oxide heterointerface.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 42341128.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1126/sciadv.aeg0460 and PMC identifier 13292944.
- 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
A magnetic field typically suppresses superconductivity by either breaking Cooper pairs via the Zeeman effect or inducing vortex formation. However, under certain circumstances, a magnetic field can stabilize superconductivity instead. This seemingly counterintuitive phenomenon is associated with magnetic interactions and has been extensively studied in three-dimensional materials. By contrast, this phenomenon, hinting at unconventional superconductivity, remains largely unexplored in two-dimensional systems, with moiré-patterned graphene being the only known example. Here, we report the observation of reentrant superconductivity at the epitaxial (110)-oriented LaTiO<sub>3</sub>-KTaO<sub>3</sub> interface. This phenomenon occurs across a wide range of charge carrier densities, which, unlike in three-dimensional materials, can be tuned in situ via electrostatic gating. We propose that the observed reentrant superconductivity can arise from an interplay between strong spin-orbit coupling and a magnetic field-driven modification of the Fermi surface. Our findings provide insight into reentrant superconductivity and establish a robust platform for exploring unconventional superconducting phenomena in two-dimensional systems.