Spontaneous rotational symmetry breaking in KTaO3 heterointerface superconductors

Guanqun Zhang, Lijie Wang, Jinghui Wang, Guoan Li, Guangyi Huang, Guang Yang, Huanyi Xue, Zhongfeng Ning, Yueshen Wu, Jin-Peng Xu, Yanru Song (), Zhenghua An, Changlin Zheng, Jie Shen (), Jun Li (), Yan Chen and Wei Li ()
Additional contact information
Guanqun Zhang: Fudan University
Lijie Wang: Fudan University
Jinghui Wang: ShanghaiTech University
Guoan Li: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Guangyi Huang: Fudan University
Guang Yang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Huanyi Xue: Fudan University
Zhongfeng Ning: Fudan University
Yueshen Wu: ShanghaiTech University
Jin-Peng Xu: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Yanru Song: ShanghaiTech University
Zhenghua An: Fudan University
Changlin Zheng: Fudan University
Jie Shen: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Jun Li: ShanghaiTech University
Yan Chen: Fudan University
Wei Li: Fudan University

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract Broken symmetries play a fundamental role in superconductivity and influence many of its properties in a profound way. Understanding these symmetry breaking states is essential to elucidate the various exotic quantum behaviors in non-trivial superconductors. Here, we report an experimental observation of spontaneous rotational symmetry breaking of superconductivity at the heterointerface of amorphous (a)-YAlO3/KTaO3(111) with a superconducting transition temperature of 1.86 K. Both the magnetoresistance and superconducting critical field in an in-plane field manifest striking twofold symmetric oscillations deep inside the superconducting state, whereas the anisotropy vanishes in the normal state, demonstrating that it is an intrinsic property of the superconducting phase. We attribute this behavior to the mixed-parity superconducting state, which is an admixture of s-wave and p-wave pairing components induced by strong spin-orbit coupling inherent to inversion symmetry breaking at the heterointerface of a-YAlO3/KTaO3. Our work suggests an unconventional nature of the underlying pairing interaction in the KTaO3 heterointerface superconductors, and brings a new broad of perspective on understanding non-trivial superconducting properties at the artificial heterointerfaces.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-38759-0

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