Pairing state at an interface of Sr$_2$RuO$_4$: parity-mixing, restored time-reversal symmetry, and topological superconductivity

Abstract

We investigate pairing states realized at the (001) interface of a spin-triplet superconductor Sr$_2$RuO$_4$ on the basis of microscopic calculations. Because of a Rashba-type spin-orbit interaction induced at the interface, strong parity-mixing of Cooper pairs between a spin-singlet state and a spin-triplet state occurs in this system. There are also strong inter-band pair correlations between the spin-orbit split bands, in spite of the considerably large spin-orbit splitting. This is due to frustration between the spin-orbit interaction and pairing interactions. In this pairing state, time-reversal symmetry is restored, in contrast to the bulk Sr$_2$RuO$_4$ which is believed to be a chiral $p+ip$ superconductor with broken time-reversal symmetry. It is demonstrated that, because of these features, the pairing state at the interface is a promising candidate for the recently proposed time-reversal invariant topological superconductor.

Submitted to New. J. Phys. a focus issue on "Superconductors with Exotic Symmetries"; amended version as accepted for publication