Unconventional hysteresis due to time-reversal symmetry breaking superconductivity in RbV3Sb5

The study of kagome materials has recently attracted much attention due to the presence of many electron-electron interaction-driven phases in a single material. In this work, we report the time-reversal symmetry-breaking superconductivity in the thin-flake kagome material RbV3Sb5. Firstly, when an in-plane magnetic field is swept in opposite directions, we observe an unconventional form of hysteresis in magnetoresistance, which is different from the hysteresis induced by extrinsic mechanisms. In contrast, no such hysteresis is observed in CsV3Sb5 samples below their superconducting transition temperature. Strikingly, at a fixed magnetic field, the finite-resistance state in RbV3Sb5 can be transitioned into the superconducting state by applying and subsequently removing a large current. Secondly, at temperatures around 400 mK, the re-entrance of superconductivity occurs during an in-plane field-sweeping process with a fixed sweeping direction. The observations of the unconventional hysteresis and re-entrance suggest the existence of time-reversal symmetry-breaking superconducting states in RbV3Sb5. The authors report the time-reversal symmetry breaking superconductivity in the thin-flake kagome material RbV3Sb5, manifesting primarily as an unconventional form of hysteresis that is not observed in CsV3Sb5. They also observe reentrance of superconductivity during an in-plane field-sweeping process at 400 mK.