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Title: Role of locally polar regions in the superconductivity of SrTiO3

Abstract

Understanding the interaction between polar and superconducting order parameters may hold the key to several classes of superconductors that remain poorly understood, including SrTiO3 and several tellurides. Here we show that doped, strained SrTiO3 films can exhibit both global or local polar order, respectively, depending on the amount of epitaxial mismatch strain, thereby providing a platform to understand how inversion symmetry breaking affects superconductivity. We find that the superconducting critical temperature correlates with the length scale of polar order. In particular, the transition temperature is enhanced when polar nanodomains are sufficiently large or, in the extreme limit, films are globally ferroelectric. In these cases, the Cooper pairs reside in a noncentrosymmetric environment. Conversely, low transition temperatures are found when the nanodomains are small. The findings point to the length scale of polar nanodomains and spin-orbit coupling as important parameters controlling the superconductivity of SrTiO3. Furthermore, the ability to control the size of the polar domains opens up new opportunities to design and control the nature of superconductivity in a wide range of materials.

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]
  1. Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); US Army Research Office (ARO)
OSTI Identifier:
1824794
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1824806; OSTI ID: 1824889
Grant/Contract Number:  
SC0020305; FG02-02ER45994; W911NF-16-1-0361; DEFG02-02ER45994; SC0019414
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Physical Review Materials
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 5; Journal Issue: 10; Journal ID: ISSN 2475-9953
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; SrTiO3; spin-orbit coupling; superconductivity; ferroelectrics; scanning transmission electron microscopy; SrTiO3, superconductivity, ferroelectricity, spin-orbit coupling

Citation Formats

Salmani-Rezaie, Salva, Jeong, Hanbyeol, Russell, Ryan, Harter, John W., and Stemmer, Susanne. Role of locally polar regions in the superconductivity of SrTiO3. United States: N. p., 2021. Web. doi:10.1103/physrevmaterials.5.104801.
Salmani-Rezaie, Salva, Jeong, Hanbyeol, Russell, Ryan, Harter, John W., & Stemmer, Susanne. Role of locally polar regions in the superconductivity of SrTiO3. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevmaterials.5.104801
Salmani-Rezaie, Salva, Jeong, Hanbyeol, Russell, Ryan, Harter, John W., and Stemmer, Susanne. Wed . "Role of locally polar regions in the superconductivity of SrTiO3". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevmaterials.5.104801. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1824794.
@article{osti_1824794,
title = {Role of locally polar regions in the superconductivity of SrTiO3},
author = {Salmani-Rezaie, Salva and Jeong, Hanbyeol and Russell, Ryan and Harter, John W. and Stemmer, Susanne},
abstractNote = {Understanding the interaction between polar and superconducting order parameters may hold the key to several classes of superconductors that remain poorly understood, including SrTiO3 and several tellurides. Here we show that doped, strained SrTiO3 films can exhibit both global or local polar order, respectively, depending on the amount of epitaxial mismatch strain, thereby providing a platform to understand how inversion symmetry breaking affects superconductivity. We find that the superconducting critical temperature correlates with the length scale of polar order. In particular, the transition temperature is enhanced when polar nanodomains are sufficiently large or, in the extreme limit, films are globally ferroelectric. In these cases, the Cooper pairs reside in a noncentrosymmetric environment. Conversely, low transition temperatures are found when the nanodomains are small. The findings point to the length scale of polar nanodomains and spin-orbit coupling as important parameters controlling the superconductivity of SrTiO3. Furthermore, the ability to control the size of the polar domains opens up new opportunities to design and control the nature of superconductivity in a wide range of materials.},
doi = {10.1103/physrevmaterials.5.104801},
journal = {Physical Review Materials},
number = 10,
volume = 5,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Oct 06 00:00:00 EDT 2021},
month = {Wed Oct 06 00:00:00 EDT 2021}
}

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