Rotation of the magnetic vortex lattice in Ru7B3 driven by the effects of broken time-reversal and inversion symmetry

Abstract

We observe a hysteretic reorientation of the magnetic vortex lattice in the noncentrosymmetric superconductor Ru7B3, with the change in orientation driven by altering the magnetic field below Tc. Normally a vortex lattice chooses either a single or degenerate set of orientations with respect to a crystal lattice at any given field or temperature, a behavior well described by prevailing phenomenological and microscopic theories. Here, in the absence of any typical VL structural transition, we observe a continuous rotation of the vortex lattice which exhibits a pronounced hysteresis and is driven by a change in magnetic field. We propose that this rotation is related to the spontaneous magnetic fields present in the superconducting phase, which are evidenced by the observation of time-reversal symmetry breaking, and the physics of broken inversion symmetry. Finally, we develop a model from the Ginzburg-Landau approach which shows that the coupling of these to the vortex lattice orientation can result in the rotation we observe.