Gate-imprinted memory and light-induced erasure of superconductivity at KTaO_3-based interfaces

Abstract: Realizing non-volatile control of superconductivity is a key step toward integrating memory and quantum functionality in future information technologies. KTaO_3-based heterostructures uniquely host both interfacial two-dimensional superconductivity and a quantum paraelectric lattice background. The coupling between these two degrees of freedom potentially provides a promising route to encode memory directly into the superconducting state. Here, we reveal two intertwined phenomena in AlO_x/KTaO_3 heterostructures: a gate-history memory in which progressive electrostatic cycling enhances the superconducting transition temperature, and its complete erasure by light illumination at cryogenic temperatures. These phenomena arise from a previously unrecognized interplay between the superconducting interface and emergent lattice excitations - including polar-nanoregion reorientation and oxygen-vacancy ionization. These results demonstrate reconfigurable and non-volatile superconductivity at correlated oxide interfaces, opening a pathway to combine dissipationless transport with non-volatility for superconducting neuromorphic elements.