Nonreciprocal charge transport in the titanium sesquioxide heterointerface superconductor (2401.13072v1)

Abstract: Nonreciprocal charge transport in heterostructural superconductors exhibits appealing quantum physical phenomena and holds the promising potential for superconducting circuits applications. Realizing a nonreciprocity is, however, fundamentally and technologically challenging, as it requires a material structure without a centre of inversion, which is scarce among superconducting materials. Here, we report an evidence of helical superconductivity, in which the Rashba spin-orbit coupling induces momentum-dependent superconducting gap in the inversion symmetry breaking heterointerface superconductor consisting of Mott insulating Ti$_2$O$_3$ and polar semiconducting GaN. Remarkably, the nonlinear responses emerge in the superconducting transition regime, when the magnetic field is precisely aligned in-plane orientations perpendicular to the applied current. In particular, the observed nonreciprocal supercurrent is extremely sensitive to the direction of the magnetic field for 0.5 degree, suggestive of a crossover from a symmetry breaking state to a symmetric one. Our finding not only unveils the underlying rich physical properties in heterointerface superconductors, but also provides an exciting opportunity for the development of novel mesoscopic superconducting devices.