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Updated: May 22, 2026

Growth and Electrostatic/chemical Properties of Metal/LaAlO3/SrTiO3 Heterostructures
Published on: February 8, 2018
Superconducting and ferromagnetic phases in SrTiO3/LaAlO3 oxide interface structures: possibility of finite momentum
Karen Michaeli1, Andrew C Potter, Patrick A Lee
1Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
Abstract:
We introduce a model to explain the observed ferromagnetism and superconductivity in LAO/STO oxide interface structures. Because of the polar catastrophe mechanism, 1/2 charge per unit cell is transferred to the interface layer. We argue that this charge localizes and orders ferromagnetically via exchange with the conduction electrons. Ordinarily, this ferromagnetism would destroy superconductivity, but, due to strong spin-orbit coupling near the interface, the magnetism and superconductivity can coexist by forming a Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinikov-type condensate of Cooper pairs at finite momentum, which is surprisingly robust in the presence of strong disorder.
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