Controllable Rashba spin-orbit interaction in artificially engineered superlattices involving the heavy-fermion superconductor CeCoIn5

Abstract

By using a molecular beam epitaxy technique, we fabricate a new type of superconducting superlattices with controlled atomic layer thicknesses of alternating blocks between heavy fermion superconductor CeCoIn_5, which exhibits a strong Pauli pair-breaking effect, and nonmagnetic metal YbCoIn_5. The introduction of the thickness modulation of YbCoIn_5 block layers breaks the inversion symmetry centered at the superconducting block of CeCoIn_5. This configuration leads to dramatic changes in the temperature and angular dependence of the upper critical field, which can be understood by considering the effect of the Rashba spin-orbit interaction arising from the inversion symmetry breaking and the associated weakening of the Pauli pair-breaking effect. Since the degree of thickness modulation is a design feature of this type of superlattices, the Rashba interaction and the nature of pair-breaking are largely tunable in these modulated superlattices with strong spin-orbit coupling.

5 pages, 4 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev. Lett

References in corpus (9)

• Topological Phases of Noncentrosymmetric Superconductors: Edge States, Majorana Fermions, and the Non-Abelian Statistics
• Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov State in Heavy Fermion Superconductors
• Spin resonance in the d-wave superconductor CeCoIn5
• Topological spin-current in non-centrosymmetric superconductors
• Electron Correlation and Pairing States in Superconductors without Inversion Symmetry
• Andreev Reflection in Heavy-Fermion Superconductors and Order Parameter Symmetry in CeCoIn_5
• Majorana Fermions in Nodal Superconductors: Gapless Topological Phase
• Anomalous Upper Critical Field in CeCoIn_5/YbCoIn_5 Superlattices with a Rashba-type Heavy Fermion Interface
• Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless Transition in Heavy Fermion Superlattices

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Topological surface states in nodal superconductors
• Controllable spin-orbit coupling and its influence on the upper critical field in the chemically doped quasi-one-dimensional Nb${}_2$PdS${}_5$ superconductor
• Electron Correlation Effects in Non-Centrosymmetric Metals in the Weak Coupling Regime
• Vortex Core Structure in Multilayered Rashba Superconductors