- Letter
Unconventional superconductivity in altermagnets with spin-orbit coupling
Phys. Rev. B 110, L220503 – Published 16 December, 2024
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.110.L220503
Abstract
We investigate some possible symmetries of the superconducting state that emerges in three-dimensional altermagnets in the presence of spin-orbit coupling. We demonstrate within a weak-coupling approach that these altermagnets, which naturally possess an order modulated by a vector form factor , favor spin-triplet superconductivity described by gap functions given by , where . Consequently, this singles out -wave spin-triplet superconductivity as the most favorable pairing state to appear in the vicinity of -wave altermagnetism. Furthermore, we obtain that the combination of spin-singlet superconducting states with altermagnetism gives rise to Bogoliubov-Fermi surfaces, which are protected by a topological invariant. Using a Ginzburg-Landau analysis, we show that, for a class of spin-orbit coupled altermagnetic models, a superconducting phase is expected to appear at low temperatures as an intertwined state, thus breaking time-reversal symmetry spontaneously.
Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)
- Geometric & topological phases
- Phase diagrams
- Quantum phase transitions
- Spin-orbit coupling
- Spin-singlet pairing
- Spin-triplet pairing
- Superconducting phase transition
- Symmetry protected topological states
- Topological superconductors
- Altermagnets
- Unconventional superconductors
- Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations
- Landau-Ginzburg theory