19 research outputs found
Possible signatures of mixed-parity superconductivity in doped polar SrTiO3 films
Superconductors that possess both broken spatial inversion symmetry and
spin-orbit interactions exhibit a mix of spin singlet and triplet pairing.
Here, we report on measurements of the superconducting properties of
electron-doped, strained SrTiO3 films. These films have an enhanced
superconducting transition temperature and were previously shown to undergo a
transition to a polar phase prior to becoming superconducting. We show that
some films show signatures of an unusual superconducting state, such as an
in-plane critical field that is higher than both the paramagnetic and orbital
pair breaking limits. Moreover, nonreciprocal transport, which reflects the
ratio of odd versus even pairing interactions, is observed. Together, these
characteristics indicate that these films provide a tunable platform for
investigations of unconventional superconductivity
Point group symmetry of cadmium arsenide thin films determined by convergent beam electron diffraction
Cadmium arsenide (Cd3As2) is one of the first materials to be discovered to
belong to the class of three-dimensional topological semimetals. Reported room
temperature crystal structures of Cd3As2 reported differ subtly in the way the
Cd vacancies are arranged within its antifluorite-derived structure, which
determines if an inversion center is present and if Cd3As2 is a Dirac or Weyl
semimetal. Here, we apply convergent beam electron diffraction (CBED) to
determine the point group of Cd3As2 thin films grown by molecular beam epitaxy.
Using CBED patterns from multiple zone axes, high-angle annular dark-field
images acquired in scanning transmission electron microscopy, and Bloch wave
simulations, we show that Cd3As2 belongs to the tetragonal 4/mmm point group,
which is centrosymmetric. The results show that CBED can distinguish very
subtle differences in the crystal structure of a topological semimetal, a
capability that will be useful for designing materials and thin film
heterostructures with topological states that depend on the presence of certain
crystal symmetries.Comment: Accepted for publication in Physical Review Material
Enhanced Critical Field of Superconductivity at an Oxide Interface
The nature of superconductivity and its interplay with strong spin-orbit
coupling at the KTaO3(111) interfaces remains a subject of debate. To address
this problem, we grew epitaxial LaMnO3/KTaO3(111) heterostructures. We show
that superconductivity is robust against the in-plane magnetic field, with the
critical field of superconductivity reaching 25 T in optimally doped
heterostructures. The superconducting order parameter is highly sensitive to
carrier density. We argue that spin-orbit coupling drives the formation of
anomalous quasiparticles with vanishing magnetic moment, providing the
condensate significant immunity against magnetic fields beyond the Pauli
paramagnetic limit. These results offer design opportunities for
superconductors with extreme resilience against magnetic field
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Atomic Scale Understanding of Ferroelectricity and Superconductivity in SrTiO3
The central material of interest for this thesis is strontium titanate (SrTiO3). Doped SrTiO3 exhibits a wide range of remarkable properties. The focus of this work is to investigate its ferroelectric and superconducting behavior. We utilize scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) to understand the role of the nanoscale SrTiO3 structure in these properties. SrTiO3 is an incipient ferroelectric in unstrained, pure form, but easily becomes ferroelectric when subjected to small perturbations. Understanding the nature of the ferroelectric transition in SrTiO3 is essential as it can play an important role in other properties. A hallmark of order-disorder transitions is the formation of polar domains above the Curie temperature. These polar regions percolate below the Curie temperature to form a long-range ordered ferroelectric state. Using high-angle annular dark-field STEM and analyzing off-centering of Ti columns, we show local polar regions at room temperature in compressively strained SrTiO3 films, highlighting the order-disorder nature of the ferroelectric transition in this material.
Next, we focus on understanding the competition between mobile carriers and polar crystal distortions. Elucidating the nature of this competition is of great interest for polar superconductors, which have attracted significant interest for their potential to host unconventional superconducting states. We observe a systematic suppression of the nanodomains and ferroelectricity with increasing amount of Sm dopant atoms. The itinerant electrons screen polar distortions and disrupt the nanodomains above the Curie temperature. The results provide direct evidence that long-range Coulomb interactions, already present in the paraelectric phase, are driving the ferroelectric transition and are becoming increasingly short-ranged with doping. Moreover, we show that the disorder caused by the dopant atoms themselves presents a second contribution to the destabilization of the ferroelectric state. This disorder destroys the nanodomains at high dopant concentrations.
The focus of the second part of this thesis concerns the superconductivity of SrTiO3. Doped SrTiO3 is a superconductor whose pairing mechanism is still not fully understood. Superconductivity in SrTiO3 occurs in the vicinity of a ferroelectric instability, and recent theories suggest a link between two orders. Here, by using atomic structure imaging, we find that the superconducting critical temperature correlates with the length scale of polar order. The superconducting transition temperature is enhanced when polar nanodomains are sufficiently large. In these cases, the Cooper pairs reside in a non-centrosymmetric environment with strong spin-orbit coupling. The findings point to the length scale of polar nanodomains and spin-orbit coupling as important parameters controlling the superconductivity of SrTiO3. We investigate the robustness of superconductivity to magnetic and nonmagnetic disorder and discuss the importance of findings in explaining the unconventional nature of superconductivity in this material
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