Tunable superconductivity and its origin at KTaO₃ interfaces

What causes Cooper pairs to form in unconventional superconductors is often elusive because experimental signatures that connect to a specific pairing mechanism are rare. Here, we observe distinct dependences of the superconducting transition temperature T-c on carrier density n(2D) for electron gases formed at KTaO3 (111), (001) and (110) interfaces. For the (111) interface, a remarkable linear dependence of T-c on n(2D) is observed over a range of nearly one order of magnitude. Further, our study of the dependence of superconductivity on gate electric fields reveals the role of the interface in mediating superconductivity. We find that the extreme sensitivity of superconductivity to crystallographic orientation can be explained by pairing via inter-orbital interactions induced by an inversion-breaking transverse optical phonon and quantum confinement. This mechanism is also consistent with the dependence of T-c on n(2D). Our study may shed light on the pairing mechanism in other superconducting quantum paraelectrics.