Disorder-enhanced superconductivity in altermagnet-superconductor hybrids

Starting from microscopic Gor'kov theory we study the effect of disorder on the superconducting phase transition in proximity coupled superconductor-altermagnet (S/AM) bilayers. Potential scattering on point impurities is shown to result in a strong enhancement of the superconducting critical temperature (${T}_{c}$) due to the averaging of the momentum-dependent exchange field induced by the altermagnetic layer. In the presence of magnetic impurities the ${T}_{c}$ value may even become a nonmonotonic function of impurity concentration due to the interplay between nonmagnetic and magnetic scattering mechanisms. The experimental observation of such peculiar effects of disorder on superconductivity can facilitate the detection of altermagnetic ordering and the use of S/AM structures in superconducting spintronics.