Evidence for ferromagnetism in KTaO$_3$ heterointerface superconductors

The coexistence of superconductivity and ferromagnetism has been a long-standing issue in the realm of unconventional superconductivity due to the antagonistic nature of these two ordered states. Experimentally identifying and characterizing new fascinating heterointerface superconductors that coexist with magnetism are challenging. Here, we report the experimental observation of long-range ferromagnetic order at the verge of two-dimensional superconductivity at the KTaO$_3$ heterointerfaces. Remarkably, the fingerprint of ferromagnetism is the existence of in-plane magnetization hysteresis loop persisting up to room temperature observed in direct current superconducting quantum interference device measurements. Furthermore, first-principles calculations suggest that the robust ferromagnetism is attributed to the presence of oxygen vacancies that localize electrons in nearby Ta 5$d$ states. Our findings not only unveil the KTaO$_3$ heterointerfaces to be unconventional superconductors with time-reversal symmetry breaking, but also inject a new momentum to the study of a delicate interplay of superconductivity and magnetism boosted by the strong spin-orbit coupling inherent to the heavy Ta in 5$d$ orbitals of KTaO$_3$ heterointerfaces.