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The spinel oxide superconductor LiTi2O4 (LTO) is an intriguing materialplatform where the electronic structure near the Fermi energy (EF) is derivedfrom 3d elections on the geometrically frustrated Ti pyrochlore network. Arecent angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) study has revealed theexistence of an exotic quasiparticle state arising from the competition betweeninstability towards orbital ordering and geometrical frustration below 150 K.An intriguing remaining challenge is the imaging of Abrikosov vortices, whichgenerally inherits the symmetry of the Fermi surface at k_z=0. Here, we observesurprising triangular-shaped Abrikosov vortices on an LTO(111) film, deviatingfrom the conventional expectations of the six-fold symmetric Fermi surface atk_z=0. In combination with the experimentally observed isotropic pairing, wepropose magnetic field-driven rotational electronic symmetry breaking of theunderlying Fermi surface. Consequently, we observe Josephson vortices along thecrystalline domain boundary, across which quasiparticle hopping is suppresseddue to the symmetry-broken Fermi surface in each domain. Our discoveries pointto the existence of unique physics of magnetic field-induced electronicrotational symmetry breaking in the spinel oxide superconductor LTO. Thispicture is in stark contrast to the other exotic superconductors with partialgap opening or long-range ordering with broken symmetry above thesuperconducting critical temperature at zero magnetic field.

Visualizing magnetic field-induced rotational electronic symmetry breaking in a spinel oxide superconductor