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  • Type-II Ising pairing in fe...
    Falson, Joseph; Xu, Yong; Liao, Menghan; Zang, Yunyi; Zhu, Kejing; Wang, Chong; Zhang, Zetao; Liu, Hongchao; Duan, Wenhui; He, Ke; Liu, Haiwen; Smet, Jurgen H; Zhang, Ding; Xue, Qi-Kun

    Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science), 03/2020, Volume: 367, Issue: 6485
    Journal Article

    Spin-orbit coupling has proven indispensable in the realization of topological materials and, more recently, Ising pairing in two-dimensional superconductors. This pairing mechanism relies on inversion symmetry-breaking and sustains anomalously large in-plane polarizing magnetic fields whose upper limit is predicted to diverge at low temperatures. Here, we show that the recently discovered superconductor few-layer stanene, epitaxially strained gray tin (α-Sn), exhibits a distinct type of Ising pairing between carriers residing in bands with different orbital indices near the Γ-point. The bands are split as a result of spin-orbit locking without the participation of inversion symmetry-breaking. The in-plane upper critical field is strongly enhanced at ultralow temperature and reveals the predicted upturn.