Nonrelativistic-Ising superconductivity in p-wave magnets

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential for Ising superconductivity in nonrelativistic p-wave magnets, highlighting their unique symmetry properties and the resulting unconventional superconducting pairing states.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of superconductivity in p-wave magnets with noncollinear magnetization, revealing that only Ising superconductivity is supported due to their symmetry characteristics.

Findings

Superconductivity in p-wave magnets supports Ising symmetry.

Large triplet component enhances resilience against pair breaking.

Contrasts with regular antiferromagnets and altermagnets in pairing support.

Abstract

We discuss a possibility of superconductivity in the p-wave magnets. These are recently discovered materials that have zero net magnetization by symmetry and finite non-relativistic spin splitting of electron bands, like in altermagnets. Similarly, the spin polarizations is collinear in the momentum space. Yet, as opposed to altermagnets, the magnetization is noncollinear in the real space, and the spin splitting obeys time-reversal symmetry in the momentum space. As a result, if such material harbors superconductivity (due to phonons, or any other mechanism), the only supported superconducting symmetry is Ising superconductivity, an exotic symmetry where any Cooper pair is a 50:50 mix of singlet and triplet. This unusual behavior is also in stark contrast to regular antiferromagnet, which can support Cooper pairs of any parity, and altermagnets, which can only support nonunitary triplet pairs. The presence of large triplet component and enhanced resilience against pair breaking is inherent to the p-wave magnets and as such is unconventional as it does not materialize in conventional spin-orbit coupling induced Ising superconductors.