Ground states are studied by solving a modified Ginzburg–Landau model for mesoscopic metallic superconducting rings. It is found that surface effect related spin-orbit (SO) interaction can generate an effective orbital magnetic field of opposite orientations for spin-up and spin-down electrons which leads to spin-polarized states with opposite chirality. The quantum phase transition between the spin-polarized states and spin singlet superconducting states can occur by applying an external magnetic field normal to the ring-plane.
Chirality-controlled spontaneous currents in spin-orbit coupled superconducting rings
