Abstract
We consider a hybrid structure where a material with Rashba-like spin-orbit coupling is proximity coupled to a conventional superconductor. We find that the superconducting critical temperature can be tuned by rotating the vector characterizing the axis of broken inversion symmetry. This is explained by a leakage of -wave singlet Cooper pairs out of the superconducting region, and by conversion of -wave singlets into other types of correlations, among these -wave odd-frequency pairs robust to impurity scattering. These results demonstrate a conceptually different way of tuning compared to the previously studied variation of in magnetic hybrids.
- Received 3 September 2019
- Revised 28 April 2020
- Accepted 10 August 2020
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.107002
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