# Spontaneous currents in superconducting systems with strong spin-orbit coupling

## TL;DR

This paper predicts that Rashba spin-orbit coupling at superconductor-ferromagnet interfaces induces spontaneous currents, affecting magnetic properties and vortex formation, with implications for superconducting spintronics.

## Contribution

It demonstrates that strong spin-orbit coupling can generate spontaneous currents and magnetic effects at superconductor-ferromagnet interfaces, a novel insight into interface phenomena.

## Key findings

- Spontaneous currents are induced near the interface due to Rashba spin-orbit coupling.
- The spontaneous current creates a magnetic field and influences vortex formation.
- The critical field temperature dependence is altered by the interface effects.

## Abstract

We show that Rashba spin-orbit coupling at the interface between a superconductor and a ferromagnet should produce a spontaneous current in the atomic thickness region near the interface. This current is counter-balanced by the superconducting screening current flowing in the region of the width of the London penetration depth near the interface. Such current carrying state creates a magnetic field near the superconductor surface, generates a stray magnetic field outside the sample edges, changes the slope of the temperature dependence of the critical field $H_{c3}$ and may generate the spontaneous Abrikosov vortices near the interface.