Spin response and topology of a staggered-Rashba superconductor

Inversion symmetry is a key symmetry in unconventional superconductors, and even its local breaking can have profound implications. Non-centrosymmetric superconductors is a class of materials, that break inversion symmetry locally, while preserving it globally. For such systems, there is a competition on a microscopic level between the spin-orbit coupling associated with the local lack of inversion and hybridizing terms that “restore” inversion. Investigating a layered system with alternating mirror-symmetry breaking, we study this competition considering the spin response of different superconducting order parameters for the case of strong spin-orbit coupling. We also identify several regimes with possible topological superconducting phases using a symmetry-indicator analysis.