Strong intrinsic or interfacial spin-orbit coupling (SOC) can enable a thin-film superconductor to exceed the paramagnetic limit. For Rashba-type SOC, we show that the superconducting thermodynamic properties of a finite-size thin film are strongly sample-size dependent due to the creation of edge states; for example, in the case of geometrically anisotropic thin films, the critical field is found to be tunable through the direction of an externally applied in-plane magnetic field. These findings open perspectives for the development of superconducting spin-orbitronic devices.

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• Spin polarization
• Spin-orbit coupling
• Spin-singlet pairing
• Spin-triplet pairing
• Spintronics
• Superconductivity
• Spin valves
• Superconductors