Non-centrosymmetric superconductors: Strong vs. weak electronic correlations

Abstract

Superconductivity in materials without inversion symmetry displays intriguing properties due to a strong modification of their band structures caused by antisymmetric spin-orbit coupling. This is most dramatically seen in several recently discovered heavy fermion superconductors such as CePt 3Si or CeT Si 3 (T = Rh and Ir). These systems are interesting in view of the involvement of magnetic fluctuations in the pairing mechanism yielding dominant unconventional Cooper pairing in a so-called mixed parity form. However, also other non-centrosymmetric superconductors with weakly correlated electrons are in many respects interesting and will be reviewed here. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012.