Abstract

Topological materials and their unusual properties are nowadays a focus of experimental and theoretical research. Promising systems where topological superconducting phases can be realized are materials with a spin-triplet superconducting state. Yet, in the nature superconductors with a spin-triplet p-wave pairing are exceptions. The experimentally accessible way to overcome this bottleneck is spin-triplet pairing induced in proximitized structures of spin-singlet superconductors with time-reversal symmetry breaking counterparts. We discuss the possibility of creating such materials using superconductor–half-metallic manganite nano-structures. A unique promising feature of the proximity-coupled hybrid structures is high-temperature local triplet superconductivity in half-metallic manganites. The experimental evidence of a latent spin-triplet pairing in half-metallic manganites is presented and conditions favoring the topological superconducting state in nanostructures based on them are discussed.

Key words: half-metallic manganites, localized superconducting Cooper pairs, topological superconductivity, superconductor–ferromagnet heterostructures.