Abstract
A spontaneous symmetry breaking in a system often results in domain wall formation. The motion of such domain walls is utilized to realize novel devices like racetrack-memories, in which moving ferromagnetic domain walls store and carry information. Superconductors breaking time reversal symmetry can also form domains with degenerate chirality of their superconducting order parameter. Sr2RuO4 is the leading candidate of a chiral p-wave superconductor, expected to be accompanied by chiral domain structure. Here, we present that Nb/Ru/Sr2RuO4 topological superconducting-junctions, with which the phase winding of order parameter can be effectively probed by making use of real-space topology, exhibit unusual switching between higher and lower critical current states. This switching is well explained by chiral-domain-wall dynamics. The switching can be partly controlled by external parameters such as temperature, magnetic field and current. These results open up a possibility to utilize the superconducting chiral domain wall motion for future novel superconducting devices.
Highlights
A spontaneous symmetry breaking in a system often results in domain wall formation
With decreasing temperature below Tc_Nb 5 9.5 K, the proximity effect of the s-wave superconductivity develops in Ru
The junction behavior is conventional and highly reproducible down to Tc_bullk, a number of anomalous behaviors emerge at temperatures precisely below Tc_bullk
Summary
A spontaneous symmetry breaking in a system often results in domain wall formation. The motion of such domain walls is utilized to realize novel devices like racetrack-memories, in which moving ferromagnetic domain walls store and carry information. Superconductors breaking time reversal symmetry can form domains with degenerate chirality of their superconducting order parameter. We present that Nb/Ru/Sr2RuO4 topological superconducting-junctions, with which the phase winding of order parameter can be effectively probed by making use of real-space topology, exhibit unusual switching between higher and lower critical current states. This switching is well explained by chiral-domain-wall dynamics. The switching can be partly controlled by external parameters such as temperature, magnetic field and current These results open up a possibility to utilize the superconducting chiral domain wall motion for future novel superconducting devices. Since previous devices containing many Ru junctions probe only averaged effects, it is much desirable to fabricate a device with a single junction to investigate the order parameter structure more sensitively, including the effect of chiral domains
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