Interorbital Cooper pairing at finite energies in Rashba surface states

Abstract

Multiband effects in hybrid structures provide a rich playground for unconventional superconductivity. We combine two complementary approaches based on density-functional theory (DFT) and effective low-energy model theory in order to investigate the proximity effect in a Rashba surface state in contact with an s-wave superconductor. We discuss these synergistic approaches and combine the effective model and DFT analysis at the example of a Au/Al heterostructure. This allows us to predict finite-energy superconducting pairing due to the interplay of the Rashba surface state of Au, and hybridization with the electronic structure of superconducting Al. We investigate the nature of the induced superconducting pairing, and we quantify its mixed singlet-triplet character. Our findings demonstrate general recipes to explore real material systems that exhibit interorbital pairing away from the Fermi energy.

Source-reported materials — not catalogue approval

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