The influence of Rashba spin-orbit coupling (SOC) on superconducting correlations in thin-film superconductor/antiferromagnet (S/AF) structures with compensated interfaces is studied. A unique effect of anisotropic enhancement of proximity-induced triplet correlations by the SOC is predicted. It manifests itself in the anisotropy of the superconducting critical temperature $T_c$ with respect to orientation of the Néel vector relative to the S/AF interface, which is opposite to the behavior of $T_c$ in superconductor/ferromagnet structures. We show that the anisotropy is controlled by the chemical potential of the superconductor and, therefore, can be adjusted in (quasi-)2D structures.

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• Antiferromagnetism
• Proximity effect
• Rashba coupling
• Antiferromagnets
• Bilayer films
• Superconductors
• Green's function methods
• Tight-binding model