Superconductivity mediated by quantum critical antiferromagnetic fluctuations: the rise and fall of hot spots

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Xiaoyu; Schattner, Yoni; Berg, Erez; Fernandes, Rafael

The maximum transition temperature Tc observed in the phase diagrams of several unconventional superconductors takes place in the vicinity of a putative antiferromagnetic quantum critical point. This observation motivated the theoretical proposal that superconductivity in these systems may be driven by quantum critical fluctuations, which in turn can also promote non-Fermi liquid behavior. In this talk, we present a combined analytical and sign-problem-free Quantum Monte Carlo investigation of the spin-fermion model - a widely studied low-energy model for the interplay between superconductivity and magnetic fluctuations. By engineering a series of band dispersions that interpolate between near-nested and open Fermi surfaces, and by also varying the strength of the spin-fermion interaction, we find that the hot spots of the Fermi surface provide the dominant contribution to the pairing instability in this model. We show that the analytical expressions for Tc and for the pairing susceptibility, obtained within a large-N Eliashberg approximation to the spin-fermion model, agree well with the Quantum Monte Carlo data, even in the regime of interactions comparable to the electronic bandwidth. DE-SC0012336.

Spin-sensitive interference due to Majorana state on the interface between normal and superconducting leads

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barański, J.; Kobiałka, A.; Domański, T.

2017-02-01

We investigate the subgap spectrum and transport properties of the quantum dot on the interface between the metallic and superconducting leads and additionally side-coupled to the edge of the topological superconducting (TS) chain, hosting the Majorana quasiparticle. Due to the chiral nature of the Majorana states only one spin component of the quantum dot electrons (say \\uparrow ) is directly affected, however the proximity induced on-dot pairing transmits its influence on the opposite spin as well. We investigate the unique interferometric patterns driven by the Majorana quasiparticle that are different for each spin component. We also address the spin-sensitive interplay with the Kondo effect manifested at the same zero-energy and we come to the conclusion that quantum interferometry can unambiguously identify the Majorana quasiparticle.

Classification of "multipole" superconductivity in multiorbital systems and its implications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nomoto, T.; Hattori, K.; Ikeda, H.

2016-11-01

Motivated by a growing interest in multiorbital superconductors with spin-orbit interactions, we perform the group-theoretical classification of various unconventional superconductivity emerging in symmorphic O , D4, and D6 space groups. The generalized Cooper pairs, which we here call "multipole" superconductivity, possess spin-orbital coupled (multipole) degrees of freedom, instead of the conventional spin singlet/triplet in single-orbital systems. From the classification, we obtain the following key consequences, which have never been focused in the long history of research in this field: (1) A superconducting gap function with Γ9⊗Γ9 in D6 possesses nontrivial momentum dependence different from the usual spin-1/2 classification. (2) Unconventional gap structure can be realized in the BCS approximation of purely local (onsite) interactions irrespective of attraction/repulsion. It implies the emergence of an electron-phonon (e-ph) driven unconventional superconductivity. (3) Reflecting symmetry of orbital basis functions there appear not symmetry protected but inevitable line nodes/gap minima, and thus, anisotropic s -wave superconductivity can be naturally explained even in the absence of competing fluctuations.

Weak phase stiffness and nature of the quantum critical point in underdoped cuprates

DOE PAGES

Yildirim, Yucel; Ku, Wei

2015-11-02

We demonstrate that the zero-temperature superconducting phase diagram of underdoped cuprates can be quantitatively understood in the strong binding limit, using only the experimental spectral function of the “normal” pseudogap phase without any free parameter. In the prototypical (La 1–xSr x) 2CuO 4, a kinetics-driven d-wave superconductivity is obtained above the critical doping δ c ~ 5.2%, below which complete loss of superfluidity results from local quantum fluctuation involving local p-wave pairs. Near the critical doping, an enormous mass enhancement of the local pairs is found responsible for the observed rapid decrease of phase stiffness. Lastly, a striking mass divergencemore » is predicted at δ c that dictates the occurrence of the observed quantum critical point and the abrupt suppression of the Nernst effects in the nearby region.« less

Critical current enhancement driven by suppression of superconducting fluctuation in ion-gated ultrathin FeSe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harada, T.; Shiogai, J.; Miyakawa, T.; Nojima, T.; Tsukazaki, A.

2018-05-01

The framework of phase transition, such as superconducting transition, occasionally depends on the dimensionality of materials. Superconductivity is often weakened in the experimental conditions of two-dimensional thin films due to the fragile superconducting state against defects and interfacial effects. In contrast to this general trend, superconductivity in the thin limit of FeSe exhibits an opposite trend, such as an increase in critical temperature (T c) and the superconducting gap exceeding the bulk values; however, the dominant mechanism is still under debate. Here, we measured thickness-dependent electrical transport properties of the ion-gated FeSe thin films to evaluate the superconducting critical current (I c) in the ultrathin FeSe. Upon systematically decreasing the FeSe thickness by the electrochemical etching technique in the Hall bar-shaped electric double-layer transistors, we observed a dramatic enhancement of I c reaching about 10 mA and corresponding to about 107 A cm‑2 in the thinnest condition. By analyzing the transition behavior, we clarify that the suppressed superconducting fluctuation is one of the origins of the large I c in the ion-gated ultrathin FeSe films. These results indicate the existence of a robust superconducting state possibly with dense Cooper pairs at the thin limit of FeSe.

Interplay between superconductivity and magnetism in iron-based superconductors

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chubukov, Andrey V

2015-06-10

This proposal is for theoretical work on strongly correlated electron systems, which are at the center of experimental and theoretical activities in condensed-matter physics. The interest to this field is driven fascinating variety of observed effects, universality of underlying theoretical ideas, and practical applications. I propose to do research on Iron-based superconductors (FeSCs), which currently attract high attention in the physics community. My goal is to understand superconductivity and magnetism in these materials at various dopings, the interplay between the two, and the physics in the phase in which magnetism and superconductivity co-exist. A related goal is to understand themore » origin of the observed pseudogap-like behavior in the normal state. My research explores the idea that superconductivity is of electronic origin and is caused by the exchange of spin-fluctuations, enhanced due to close proximity to antiferromagnetism. The multi-orbital/multi-band nature of FeSCs opens routes for qualitatively new superconducting states, particularly the ones which break time-reversal symmetry. By all accounts, the coupling in pnictdes is below the threshold for Mott physics and I intend to analyze these systems within the itinerant approach. My plan is to do research in two stages. I first plan to address several problems within weak-coupling approach. Among them: (i) what sets stripe magnetic order at small doping, (ii) is there a preemptive instability into a spin-nematic state, and how stripe order affects fermions; (iii) is there a co-existence between magnetism and superconductivity and what are the system properties in the co-existence state; (iv) how superconductivity emerges despite strong Coulomb repulsion and can the gap be s-wave but with nodes along electron FSs, (v) are there complex superconducting states, like s+id, which break time reversal symmetry. My second goal is to go beyond weak coupling and derive spin-mediated, dynamic interaction between fermions, understand what sets the upper scale for attractive interaction, compute T_c, and then obtain and solve matrix non-linear gap equation for spin-mediated pairing and study various feedbacks from the pairing on fermions on ARPES spectra, optical and thermal conductivity, and other observables, The problems I have chosen are quite generic, and the understanding of magnetically-mediated superconductivity in the strong-coupling regime will not only advance the theory of superconductivity in FeSCs, but will contribute to a generic understanding of the pairing of fermions near quantum-critical points -- the problems ranging from s-wave pairing by soft optical phonons to to color superconductivity of quarks mediated by a gluon exchange.« less

Pairing from dynamically screened Coulomb repulsion in bismuth

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ruhman, Jonathan; Lee, Patrick A.

2017-12-01

Recently, Prakash et al. have discovered bulk superconductivity in single crystals of bismuth, which is a semimetal with extremely low carrier density. At such low density, we argue that conventional electron-phonon coupling is too weak to be responsible for the binding of electrons into Cooper pairs. We study a dynamically screened Coulomb interaction with effective attraction generated on the scale of the collective plasma modes. We model the electronic states in bismuth to include three Dirac pockets with high velocity and one hole pocket with a significantly smaller velocity. We find a weak-coupling instability, which is greatly enhanced by the presence of the hole pocket. Therefore we argue that bismuth is the first material to exhibit superconductivity driven by retardation effects of Coulomb repulsion alone. By using realistic parameters for bismuth we find that the acoustic plasma mode does not play the central role in pairing. We also discuss a matrix element effect, resulting from the Dirac nature of the conduction band, which may affect Tc in the s -wave channel without breaking time-reversal symmetry.

Pairing-dependent superconductivity gap and nonholonomic Andreev reflection in Weyl semimetal/Weyl superconductor heterojunctions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fang, Jun; Duan, Wenye; Liu, Junfeng; Zhang, Chao; Ma, Zhongshui

2018-04-01

We study superconductivity states mediated by the BCS and Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) pairings in superconducting Weyl semimetals. It is found that a mixture of BCS and FFLO pairings results in a distinctive double-gap structure for superconducting states. With a heterojunction of a Weyl semimetal and a superconducting Weyl semimetal, we demonstrate the nonholonomic Andreev reflection and show that the intra- and internode Andreev reflections increase at the edges of the effective gap. The influence of interface potentials on the Andreev reflections is investigated. The conductance spectra arising from the mixed superconducting pairings is also analyzed.

Imaging of super-fast dynamics and flow instabilities of superconducting vortices

DOE PAGES

Embon, L.; Anahory, Y.; Jelić, Ž. L.; ...

2017-07-20

Quantized magnetic vortices driven by electric current determine key electromagnetic properties of superconductors. And while the dynamic behavior of slow vortices has been thoroughly investigated, the physics of ultrafast vortices under strong currents remains largely unexplored. Here, we use a nanoscale scanning superconducting quantum interference device to image vortices penetrating into a superconducting Pb film at rates of tens of GHz and moving with velocities of up to tens of km/s, which are not only much larger than the speed of sound but also exceed the pair-breaking speed limit of superconducting condensate. These experiments reveal formation of mesoscopic vortex channelsmore » which undergo cascades of bifurcations as the current and magnetic field increase. Our numerical simulations predict metamorphosis of fast Abrikosov vortices into mixed Abrikosov-Josephson vortices at even higher velocities. Our work offers an insight into the fundamental physics of dynamic vortex states of superconductors at high current densities, crucial for many applications.« less

High-Pressure Study of the Ground- and Superconducting-State Properties of CeAu2Si2

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scheerer, Gernot W.; Giriat, Gaétan; Ren, Zhi; Lapertot, Gérard; Jaccard, Didier

2017-06-01

The pressure-temperature phase diagram of the new heavy-fermion superconductor CeAu2Si2 is markedly different from those studied previously. Indeed, superconductivity emerges not on the verge but deep inside the magnetic phase, and mysteriously Tc increases with the strengthening of magnetism. In this context, we have carried out ac calorimetry, resistivity, and thermoelectric power measurements on a CeAu2Si2 single crystal under high pressure. We uncover a strong link between the enhancement of superconductivity and quantum-critical-like features in the normal-state resistivity. Non-Fermi-liquid behavior is observed around the maximum of superconductivity and enhanced scattering rates are observed close to both the emergence and the maximum of superconductivity. Furthermore we observe signatures of pressure- and temperature-driven modifications of the magnetic structure inside the antiferromagnetic phase. A comparison of the features of CeAu2Si2 and its parent compounds CeCu2Si2 and CeCu2Ge2 plotted as function of the unit-cell volume leads us to propose that critical fluctuations of a valence crossover play a crucial role in the superconducting pairing mechanism. Our study illustrates the complex interplay between magnetism, valence fluctuations, and superconductivity.

Lone pair effect, structural distortions, and potential for superconductivity in Tl perovskites.

PubMed

Schoop, Leslie M; Müchler, Lukas; Felser, Claudia; Cava, R J

2013-05-06

Drawing the analogy to BaBiO3, we investigate via ab initio electronic structure calculations potential new superconductors of the type ATlX3 with A = Rb and Cs and X = F, Cl, and Br, with a particular emphasis on RbTlCl3. On the basis of chemical reasoning, supported by the calculations, we show that Tl-based perovskites have structural and charge instabilities driven by the lone pair effect, similar to the case of BaBiO3, effectively becoming A2Tl(+)Tl(3+)X6. We find that upon hole doping of RbTlCl3, structures without Tl(+) and Tl(3+) charge disproportionation become more stable, although the ideal cubic perovskite, often viewed as the best host for superconductivity, should not be the most stable phase in the system. The known superconductor (Sr,K)BiO3 and hole doped RbTlCl3, predicted to be most stable in the same tetragonal structure, display highly analogous calculated electronic band structures.

Electron pairing without superconductivity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Levy, Jeremy

Strontium titanate (SrTiO3) is the first and best known superconducting semiconductor. It exhibits an extremely low carrier density threshold for superconductivity, and possesses a phase diagram similar to that of high-temperature superconductors--two factors that suggest an unconventional pairing mechanism. Despite sustained interest for 50 years, direct experimental insight into the nature of electron pairing in SrTiO3 has remained elusive. Here we perform transport experiments with nanowire-based single-electron transistors at the interface between SrTiO3 and a thin layer of lanthanum aluminate, LaAlO3. Electrostatic gating reveals a series of two-electron conductance resonances--paired electron states--that bifurcate above a critical pairing field Bp of about 1-4 tesla, an order of magnitude larger than the superconducting critical magnetic field. For magnetic fields below Bp, these resonances are insensitive to the applied magnetic field; for fields in excess of Bp, the resonances exhibit a linear Zeeman-like energy splitting. Electron pairing is stable at temperatures as high as 900 millikelvin, well above the superconducting transition temperature (about 300 millikelvin). These experiments demonstrate the existence of a robust electronic phase in which electrons pair without forming a superconducting state. Key experimental signatures are captured by a model involving an attractive Hubbard interaction that describes real-space electron pairing as a precursor to superconductivity. Support from AFOSR, ONR, ARO, NSF, DOE and NSSEFF is gratefully acknowledged.

Direct evidence for a magnetic f-electron–mediated pairing mechanism of heavy-fermion superconductivity in CeCoIn5

PubMed Central

Van Dyke, John S.; Massee, Freek; Allan, Milan P.; Davis, J. C. Séamus; Petrovic, Cedomir; Morr, Dirk K.

2014-01-01

To identify the microscopic mechanism of heavy-fermion Cooper pairing is an unresolved challenge in quantum matter studies; it may also relate closely to finding the pairing mechanism of high-temperature superconductivity. Magnetically mediated Cooper pairing has long been the conjectured basis of heavy-fermion superconductivity but no direct verification of this hypothesis was achievable. Here, we use a novel approach based on precision measurements of the heavy-fermion band structure using quasiparticle interference imaging to reveal quantitatively the momentum space (k-space) structure of the f-electron magnetic interactions of CeCoIn5. Then, by solving the superconducting gap equations on the two heavy-fermion bands Ekα,β with these magnetic interactions as mediators of the Cooper pairing, we derive a series of quantitative predictions about the superconductive state. The agreement found between these diverse predictions and the measured characteristics of superconducting CeCoIn5 then provides direct evidence that the heavy-fermion Cooper pairing is indeed mediated by f-electron magnetism. PMID:25062692

Theoretical studies of superconductivity in doped BaCoSO

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qin, Shengshan; Li, Yinxiang; Zhang, Qiang; Le, Congcong; Hu, Jiangping

2018-06-01

We investigate superconductivity that may exist in the doped BaCoSO, a multi-orbital Mott insulator with a strong antiferromagnetic ground state. The superconductivity is studied in both t-J type and Hubbard type multi-orbital models by mean field approach and random phase approximation (RPA) analysis. Even if there is no C 4 rotational symmetry, it is found that the system still carries a d-wave like pairing symmetry state with gapless nodes and sign changed superconducting order parameters on Fermi surfaces. The results are largely doping insensitive. In this superconducting state, the three {t_{{2_g}}} orbitals have very different superconducting form factors in momentum space. In particular, the intra-orbital pairing of the {d_{{x^2} - {y^2}}} orbital has an s-wave like pairing form factor. The two methods also predict very different pairing strength on different parts of Fermi surfaces. These results suggest that BaCoSO and related materials can be a new ground to test and establish fundamental principles for unconventional high temperature superconductivity.

Lightwave-driven quasiparticle collisions on a subcycle timescale

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Langer, F.; Hohenleutner, M.; Schmid, C. P.; Poellmann, C.; Nagler, P.; Korn, T.; Schüller, C.; Sherwin, M. S.; Huttner, U.; Steiner, J. T.; Koch, S. W.; Kira, M.; Huber, R.

2016-05-01

Ever since Ernest Rutherford scattered α-particles from gold foils, collision experiments have revealed insights into atoms, nuclei and elementary particles. In solids, many-body correlations lead to characteristic resonances—called quasiparticles—such as excitons, dropletons, polarons and Cooper pairs. The structure and dynamics of quasiparticles are important because they define macroscopic phenomena such as Mott insulating states, spontaneous spin- and charge-order, and high-temperature superconductivity. However, the extremely short lifetimes of these entities make practical implementations of a suitable collider challenging. Here we exploit lightwave-driven charge transport, the foundation of attosecond science, to explore ultrafast quasiparticle collisions directly in the time domain: a femtosecond optical pulse creates excitonic electron-hole pairs in the layered dichalcogenide tungsten diselenide while a strong terahertz field accelerates and collides the electrons with the holes. The underlying dynamics of the wave packets, including collision, pair annihilation, quantum interference and dephasing, are detected as light emission in high-order spectral sidebands of the optical excitation. A full quantum theory explains our observations microscopically. This approach enables collision experiments with various complex quasiparticles and suggests a promising new way of generating sub-femtosecond pulses.

Lightwave-driven quasiparticle collisions on a subcycle timescale.

PubMed

Langer, F; Hohenleutner, M; Schmid, C P; Poellmann, C; Nagler, P; Korn, T; Schüller, C; Sherwin, M S; Huttner, U; Steiner, J T; Koch, S W; Kira, M; Huber, R

2016-05-12

Ever since Ernest Rutherford scattered α-particles from gold foils, collision experiments have revealed insights into atoms, nuclei and elementary particles. In solids, many-body correlations lead to characteristic resonances--called quasiparticles--such as excitons, dropletons, polarons and Cooper pairs. The structure and dynamics of quasiparticles are important because they define macroscopic phenomena such as Mott insulating states, spontaneous spin- and charge-order, and high-temperature superconductivity. However, the extremely short lifetimes of these entities make practical implementations of a suitable collider challenging. Here we exploit lightwave-driven charge transport, the foundation of attosecond science, to explore ultrafast quasiparticle collisions directly in the time domain: a femtosecond optical pulse creates excitonic electron-hole pairs in the layered dichalcogenide tungsten diselenide while a strong terahertz field accelerates and collides the electrons with the holes. The underlying dynamics of the wave packets, including collision, pair annihilation, quantum interference and dephasing, are detected as light emission in high-order spectral sidebands of the optical excitation. A full quantum theory explains our observations microscopically. This approach enables collision experiments with various complex quasiparticles and suggests a promising new way of generating sub-femtosecond pulses.

Critical current and electric transport properties of superconducting epitaxial Nb(Ti)N submicron structures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Klimov, A.; Słysz, W.; Guziewicz, M.; Kolkovsky, V.; Wegrzecki, M.; Bar, J.; Marchewka, M.; Seredyński, B.

2016-12-01

Critical current and current-voltage characteristics of epitaxial Nb(Ti)N submicron ultrathin structures were measured as function of temperature. For 700-nm-wide bridge we found current-driven vortex de-pinning at low temperatures and thermally activated flux flow closer to the transition temperature, as the limiting factors for the critical current density. For 100-nm-wide meander we observed combination of phase-slip activation and vortex-anti-vortex pair (VAP) thermal excitation. Our Nb(Ti)N meander structure demonstrates high de-pairing critical current densities 107 A/cm2 at low temperatures, but the critical currents are much smaller due to presence of the local constrictions.

Superconductivity in the Penson-Kolb Model on a Triangular Lattice

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ptok, A.; Mierzejewski, M.

2008-07-01

We investigate properties of the two-dimensional Penson-Kolb model with repulsive pair hopping interaction. In the case of a bipartite square lattice this interaction may lead to the η-type pairing, when the phase of superconducting order parameter changes from one lattice site to the neighboring one. We show that this interaction may be responsible for the onset of superconductivity also for a triangular lattice. We discuss the spatial dependence of the superconducting order parameter and demonstrate that the total momentum of the paired electrons is determined by the lattice geometry.

Superconductivity and spin-orbit coupling in non-centrosymmetric materials: a review

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smidman, M.; Salamon, M. B.; Yuan, H. Q.; Agterberg, D. F.

2017-03-01

In non-centrosymmetric superconductors, where the crystal structure lacks a centre of inversion, parity is no longer a good quantum number and an electronic antisymmetric spin-orbit coupling (ASOC) is allowed to exist by symmetry. If this ASOC is sufficiently large, it has profound consequences on the superconducting state. For example, it generally leads to a superconducting pairing state which is a mixture of spin-singlet and spin-triplet components. The possibility of such novel pairing states, as well as the potential for observing a variety of unusual behaviors, led to intensive theoretical and experimental investigations. Here we review the experimental and theoretical results for superconducting systems lacking inversion symmetry. Firstly we give a conceptual overview of the key theoretical results. We then review the experimental properties of both strongly and weakly correlated bulk materials, as well as two dimensional systems. Here the focus is on evaluating the effects of ASOC on the superconducting properties and the extent to which there is evidence for singlet-triplet mixing. This is followed by a more detailed overview of theoretical aspects of non-centrosymmetric superconductivity. This includes the effects of the ASOC on the pairing symmetry and the superconducting magnetic response, magneto-electric effects, superconducting finite momentum pairing states, and the potential for non-centrosymmetric superconductors to display topological superconductivity.

Transition from Sign-Reversed to Sign-Preserved Cooper-Pairing Symmetry in Sulfur-Doped Iron Selenide Superconductors.

PubMed

Wang, Qisi; Park, J T; Feng, Yu; Shen, Yao; Hao, Yiqing; Pan, Bingying; Lynn, J W; Ivanov, A; Chi, Songxue; Matsuda, M; Cao, Huibo; Birgeneau, R J; Efremov, D V; Zhao, Jun

2016-05-13

An essential step toward elucidating the mechanism of superconductivity is to determine the sign or phase of the superconducting order parameter, as it is closely related to the pairing interaction. In conventional superconductors, the electron-phonon interaction induces attraction between electrons near the Fermi energy and results in a sign-preserved s-wave pairing. For high-temperature superconductors, including cuprates and iron-based superconductors, prevalent weak coupling theories suggest that the electron pairing is mediated by spin fluctuations which lead to repulsive interactions, and therefore that a sign-reversed pairing with an s_{±} or d-wave symmetry is favored. Here, by using magnetic neutron scattering, a phase sensitive probe of the superconducting gap, we report the observation of a transition from the sign-reversed to sign-preserved Cooper-pairing symmetry with insignificant changes in T_{c} in the S-doped iron selenide superconductors K_{x}Fe_{2-y}(Se_{1-z}S_{z})_{2}. We show that a rather sharp magnetic resonant mode well below the superconducting gap (2Δ) in the undoped sample (z=0) is replaced by a broad hump structure above 2Δ under 50% S doping. These results cannot be readily explained by simple spin fluctuation-exchange pairing theories and, therefore, multiple pairing channels are required to describe superconductivity in this system. Our findings may also yield a simple explanation for the sometimes contradictory data on the sign of the superconducting order parameter in iron-based materials.

Enhancement of the superconducting gap by nesting in CaKFe 4 As 4 : A new high temperature superconductor

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mou, Daixiang; Kong, Tai; Meier, William R.

We use high resolution angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy and density functional theory with measured crystal structure parameters to study the electronic properties of CaKFe 4As 4. In contrast to the related CaFe 2As 2 compounds, CaKFe 4As 4 has a high T c of 35 K at stochiometric composition. This presents a unique opportunity to study the properties of high temperature superconductivity in the iron arsenides in the absence of doping or substitution. The Fermi surface consists of several hole and electron pockets that have a range of diameters. We find that the values of the superconducting gap are nearlymore » isotropic (within the explored portions of the Brillouin zone), but are significantly different for each of the Fermi surface (FS) sheets. Most importantly, we find that the momentum dependence of the gap magnitude plotted across the entire Brillouin zone displays a strong deviation from the simple cos( k x)cos( k y) functional form of the gap function, proposed by the scenario of Cooper pairing driven by a short range antiferromagnetic exchange interaction. Instead, the maximum value of the gap is observed on FS sheets that are closest to the ideal nesting condition, in contrast to previous observations in other ferropnictides. Finally, these results provide strong support for the multiband character of superconductivity in CaKFe 4As 4, in which Cooper pairing forms on the electron and the hole bands interacting via a dominant interband repulsive interaction, enhanced by band nesting.« less

Enhancement of the superconducting gap by nesting in CaKFe 4 As 4 : A new high temperature superconductor

DOE PAGES

Mou, Daixiang; Kong, Tai; Meier, William R.; ...

2016-12-28

We use high resolution angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy and density functional theory with measured crystal structure parameters to study the electronic properties of CaKFe 4As 4. In contrast to the related CaFe 2As 2 compounds, CaKFe 4As 4 has a high T c of 35 K at stochiometric composition. This presents a unique opportunity to study the properties of high temperature superconductivity in the iron arsenides in the absence of doping or substitution. The Fermi surface consists of several hole and electron pockets that have a range of diameters. We find that the values of the superconducting gap are nearlymore » isotropic (within the explored portions of the Brillouin zone), but are significantly different for each of the Fermi surface (FS) sheets. Most importantly, we find that the momentum dependence of the gap magnitude plotted across the entire Brillouin zone displays a strong deviation from the simple cos( k x)cos( k y) functional form of the gap function, proposed by the scenario of Cooper pairing driven by a short range antiferromagnetic exchange interaction. Instead, the maximum value of the gap is observed on FS sheets that are closest to the ideal nesting condition, in contrast to previous observations in other ferropnictides. Finally, these results provide strong support for the multiband character of superconductivity in CaKFe 4As 4, in which Cooper pairing forms on the electron and the hole bands interacting via a dominant interband repulsive interaction, enhanced by band nesting.« less

Principle and experimental investigation of current-driven negative-inductance superconducting quantum interference device

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Hao; Liu, Jianshe; Zhang, Yingshan; Cai, Han; Li, Gang; Liu, Qichun; Han, Siyuan; Chen, Wei

2017-03-01

A negative-inductance superconducting quantum interference device (nSQUID) is an adiabatic superconducting logic device with high energy efficiency, and therefore a promising building block for large-scale low-power superconducting computing. However, the principle of the nSQUID is not that straightforward and an nSQUID driven by voltage is vulnerable to common mode noise. We investigate a single nSQUID driven by current instead of voltage, and clarify the principle of the adiabatic transition of the current-driven nSQUID between different states. The basic logic operations of the current-driven nSQUID with proper parameters are simulated by WRspice. The corresponding circuit is fabricated with a 100 A cm-2 Nb-based lift-off process, and the experimental results at low temperature confirm the basic logic operations as a gated buffer.

Synthetic Superconductivity in Single-Layer Crystals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Levitov, Leonid; Borgnia, Dan; Lee, Patrick

2015-03-01

Electronic states in atomically thin 2D crystals are fully exposed and can couple to extrinsic degrees of freedom via long-range Coulomb interactions. Novel many-body effects in such systems can be engineered by embedding them in a polar environment. Superconducting pairing interaction induced in this way can enhance the intrinsic electron-phonon pairing mechanism. We take on this notion, which was around since the 60's (''excitonic superconductivity''), and consider synthetic superconductivity (SSC) induced in 2D crystals by a polar environment. One interesting aspect of this scenario is that Coulomb repulsion acts as superconductivity friend rather than a foe. Such repulsion-to-attraction transmutation allows to access strong-coupling superconductivity regime even when intrinsic pairing interaction is weak. We analyze pairing interaction in 2D crystals placed atop a highly polarizable dielectric with dispersive permittivity ɛ (ω) and predict that by optimizing system parameters a substantial enhancement can be achieved. We also argue that the SSC mechanism can be responsible, at least in part, for 100 K superconductivity recently observed in FeSe monolayers grown on SrTiO3 substrate, with Tc more than 10 times larger than in bulk 3D FeSe crystals, arxiv:1406.3435.

Fully gapped superconductivity with no sign change in the prototypical heavy-fermion CeCu2Si2.

PubMed

Yamashita, Takuya; Takenaka, Takaaki; Tokiwa, Yoshifumi; Wilcox, Joseph A; Mizukami, Yuta; Terazawa, Daiki; Kasahara, Yuichi; Kittaka, Shunichiro; Sakakibara, Toshiro; Konczykowski, Marcin; Seiro, Silvia; Jeevan, Hirale S; Geibel, Christoph; Putzke, Carsten; Onishi, Takafumi; Ikeda, Hiroaki; Carrington, Antony; Shibauchi, Takasada; Matsuda, Yuji

2017-06-01

In exotic superconductors, including high- T c copper oxides, the interactions mediating electron Cooper pairing are widely considered to have a magnetic rather than a conventional electron-phonon origin. Interest in this exotic pairing was initiated by the 1979 discovery of heavy-fermion superconductivity in CeCu 2 Si 2 , which exhibits strong antiferromagnetic fluctuations. A hallmark of unconventional pairing by anisotropic repulsive interactions is that the superconducting energy gap changes sign as a function of the electron momentum, often leading to nodes where the gap goes to zero. We report low-temperature specific heat, thermal conductivity, and magnetic penetration depth measurements in CeCu 2 Si 2 , demonstrating the absence of gap nodes at any point on the Fermi surface. Moreover, electron irradiation experiments reveal that the superconductivity survives even when the electron mean free path becomes substantially shorter than the superconducting coherence length. This indicates that superconductivity is robust against impurities, implying that there is no sign change in the gap function. These results show that, contrary to long-standing belief, heavy electrons with extremely strong Coulomb repulsions can condense into a fully gapped s-wave superconducting state, which has an on-site attractive pairing interaction.

Superconducting proximity in three-dimensional Dirac materials: Odd-frequency, pseudoscalar, pseudovector, and tensor-valued superconducting orders

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Faraei, Zahra; Jafari, S. A.

2017-10-01

We find that a conventional s -wave superconductor in proximity to a three-dimensional Dirac material (3DDM), to all orders of perturbation in tunneling, induces a combination of s - and p -wave pairing only. We show that the Lorentz invariance of the superconducting pairing prevents the formation of Cooper pairs with higher orbital angular momenta in the 3DDM. This no-go theorem acquires stronger form when the probability of tunneling from the conventional superconductor to positive and negative energy states of 3DDM are equal. In this case, all the p -wave contribution except for the lowest order, identically vanish and hence we obtain an exact result for the induced p -wave superconductivity in 3DDM. Fierz decomposing the superconducting matrix we find that the temporal component of the vector superconducting order and the spatial components of the pseudovector order have odd-frequency pairing symmetry. We find that the latter is odd with respect to exchange of position and chirality of the electrons in the Cooper pair and is a spin-triplet, which is necessary for NMR detection of such an exotic pseudovector pairing. Moreover, we show that the tensorial order breaks into a polar vector and an axial vector and both of them have conventional pairing symmetry except for being a spin triplet. According to our study, for gapless 3DDM, the tensorial superconducting order will be the only order that is odd with respect to the chemical potential μ . Therefore we predict that a transverse p -n junction binds Majorana fermions. This effect can be used to control the neutral Majorana fermions with electric fields.

Charge transfer polarisation wave in high Tc oxides and superconductive pairing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chakraverty, B. K.

1991-01-01

A general formalism of quantized charge transfer polarization waves was developed. The nature of possible superconductive pairing between oxygen holes is discussed. Unlike optical phonons, these polarization fields will give rise to dielectric bipolarons or bipolaron bubbles. In the weak coupling limit, a new class of superconductivity is to be expected.

Chemical Bonding and Thermodynamics in Superconductivity and Superfluidity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Love, Peter

2012-05-01

Superconductivity and superfluidity are physical states that occur in a variety of chemical and physical systems. These physical states share a common type of real, or virtual, chemical bonding. Each of the systems discussed herein contain at least one real, or effective, coordinate covalent bond. This is formed from an electron pair donor species and an electron pair acceptor species. When the electronegativity difference between the electron pair donor and acceptor species is sufficiently small, the resultant coordinate covalent bond density can be substantial. If delocalized, this bond density can result in a significant increase in the electron pair orbital volume relative to that of the parent species, and an increase in the valence shell orbital entropy. In terms of the normalized Gibbs-Helmholtz equation, this results in a concomitant decrease in free energy of the delocalized electronic system. A decrease in free energy to negative values can support a boson state, and superconductivity. A clear example of these principles is the occurrence of superconductivity in the ceramic material, MgB2. These generalizations apply to superconducting elements, high temperature superconductors, superconducting alloys, and equivalently to superfluid 4He.

Effect of proton irradiation on superconductivity in optimally doped BaFe 2 ( As 1 - x P x ) 2 single crystals

DOE PAGES

Smylie, M. P.; Leroux, M.; Mishra, V.; ...

2016-03-10

In this paper, irradiation with 4 MeV protons was used to systematically introduce defects in single crystals of the iron-arsenide superconductor BaFe 2(As 1-xP x) 2, x = 0.33. The effect of disorder on the low-temperature behavior of the London penetration depth λ(T) and transition temperature T c was investigated. In nearly optimally doped samples with T c ~ 29 K, signatures of a superconducting gap with nodes were observed. Contrary to previous reports on electron-irradiated crystals, we do not see a disorder-driven lifting of accidental nodes, and we observe that proton-induced defects are weaker pair breakers than electron-induced defects.more » Finally, we attribute our findings to anisotropic electron scattering caused by proton irradiation defects.« less

p-wave triggered superconductivity in single-layer graphene on an electron-doped oxide superconductor.

PubMed

Di Bernardo, A; Millo, O; Barbone, M; Alpern, H; Kalcheim, Y; Sassi, U; Ott, A K; De Fazio, D; Yoon, D; Amado, M; Ferrari, A C; Linder, J; Robinson, J W A

2017-01-19

Electron pairing in the vast majority of superconductors follows the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer theory of superconductivity, which describes the condensation of electrons into pairs with antiparallel spins in a singlet state with an s-wave symmetry. Unconventional superconductivity was predicted in single-layer graphene (SLG), with the electrons pairing with a p-wave or chiral d-wave symmetry, depending on the position of the Fermi energy with respect to the Dirac point. By placing SLG on an electron-doped (non-chiral) d-wave superconductor and performing local scanning tunnelling microscopy and spectroscopy, here we show evidence for a p-wave triggered superconducting density of states in SLG. The realization of unconventional superconductivity in SLG offers an exciting new route for the development of p-wave superconductivity using two-dimensional materials with transition temperatures above 4.2 K.

p-wave triggered superconductivity in single-layer graphene on an electron-doped oxide superconductor

PubMed Central

Di Bernardo, A.; Millo, O.; Barbone, M.; Alpern, H.; Kalcheim, Y.; Sassi, U.; Ott, A. K.; De Fazio, D.; Yoon, D.; Amado, M.; Ferrari, A. C.; Linder, J.; Robinson, J. W. A.

2017-01-01

Electron pairing in the vast majority of superconductors follows the Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer theory of superconductivity, which describes the condensation of electrons into pairs with antiparallel spins in a singlet state with an s-wave symmetry. Unconventional superconductivity was predicted in single-layer graphene (SLG), with the electrons pairing with a p-wave or chiral d-wave symmetry, depending on the position of the Fermi energy with respect to the Dirac point. By placing SLG on an electron-doped (non-chiral) d-wave superconductor and performing local scanning tunnelling microscopy and spectroscopy, here we show evidence for a p-wave triggered superconducting density of states in SLG. The realization of unconventional superconductivity in SLG offers an exciting new route for the development of p-wave superconductivity using two-dimensional materials with transition temperatures above 4.2 K. PMID:28102222

Spin-orbit coupling, electron transport and pairing instabilities in two-dimensional square structures

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kocharian, Armen N.; Fernando, Gayanath W.; Fang, Kun

Rashba spin-orbit effects and electron correlations in the two-dimensional cylindrical lattices of square geometries are assessed using mesoscopic two-, three- and four-leg ladder structures. Here the electron transport properties are systematically calculated by including the spin-orbit coupling in tight binding and Hubbard models threaded by a magnetic flux. These results highlight important aspects of possible symmetry breaking mechanisms in square ladder geometries driven by the combined effect of a magnetic gauge field spin-orbit interaction and temperature. The observed persistent current, spin and charge polarizations in the presence of spin-orbit coupling are driven by separation of electron and hole charges andmore » opposite spins in real-space. The modeled spin-flip processes on the pairing mechanism induced by the spin-orbit coupling in assembled nanostructures (as arrays of clusters) engineered in various two-dimensional multi-leg structures provide an ideal playground for understanding spatial charge and spin density inhomogeneities leading to electron pairing and spontaneous phase separation instabilities in unconventional superconductors. Such studies also fall under the scope of current challenging problems in superconductivity and magnetism, topological insulators and spin dependent transport associated with numerous interfaces and heterostructures.« less

Phase-incoherent superconducting pairs in the normal state of Ba(Fe(1-x)Co(x))₂As₂.

PubMed

Sheet, Goutam; Mehta, Manan; Dikin, D A; Lee, S; Bark, C W; Jiang, J; Weiss, J D; Hellstrom, E E; Rzchowski, M S; Eom, C B; Chandrasekhar, V

2010-10-15

The normal state properties of the recently discovered ferropnictide superconductors might hold the key to understanding their exotic superconductivity. Using point-contact spectroscopy we show that Andreev reflection between an epitaxial thin film of Ba(Fe(0.92)Co(0.08))₂As₂ and a silver tip can be seen in the normal state of the film up to temperature T∼1.3T(c), where T(c) is the critical temperature of the superconductor. Andreev reflection far above T(c) can be understood only when superconducting pairs arising from strong fluctuation of the phase of the complex superconducting order parameter exist in the normal state. Our results provide spectroscopic evidence of phase-incoherent superconducting pairs in the normal state of the ferropnictide superconductors.

Conductance signatures of odd-frequency superconductivity in quantum spin Hall systems using a quantum point contact

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fleckenstein, C.; Ziani, N. Traverso; Trauzettel, B.

2018-04-01

Topological superconductors give rise to unconventional superconductivity, which is mainly characterized by the symmetry of the superconducting pairing amplitude. However, since the symmetry of the superconducting pairing amplitude is not directly observable, its experimental identification is rather difficult. In our work, we propose a system, composed of a quantum point contact and proximity-induced s -wave superconductivity at the helical edge of a two-dimensional topological insulator, for which we demonstrate the presence of odd-frequency pairing and its intimate connection to unambiguous transport signatures. Notably, our proposal requires no time-reversal symmetry breaking terms. We discover the domination of crossed Andreev reflection over electron cotunneling in a wide range of parameter space, which is a quite unusual transport regime.

Odd-frequency superconducting pairing and subgap density of states at the edge of a two-dimensional topological insulator without magnetism

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cayao, Jorge; Black-Schaffer, Annica M.

2017-10-01

We investigate the emergence and consequences of odd-frequency spin-triplet s -wave pairing in superconducting hybrid junctions at the edge of a two-dimensional topological insulator without any magnetism. More specifically, we consider several different normal-superconductor hybrid systems at the topological insulator edge, where spin-singlet s -wave superconducting pairing is proximity induced from an external conventional superconductor. We perform fully analytical calculations and show that odd-frequency mixed spin-triplet s -wave pairing arises due to the unique spin-momentum locking in the topological insulator edge state and the naturally nonconstant pairing potential profile in hybrid systems. Importantly, we establish a one-to-one correspondence between the local density of states (LDOS) at low energies and the odd-frequency spin-triplet pairing in NS, NSN, and SNS junctions along the topological insulator edge; at interfaces the enhancement in the LDOS can directly be attributed to the contribution of odd-frequency pairing. Furthermore, in SNS junctions we show that the emergence of the zero-energy LDOS peak at the superconducting phase ϕ =π is associated purely with odd-frequency pairing in the middle of the junction.

Amplitude fluctuations driven by the density of electron pairs within nanosize granular structures inside strongly disordered superconductors: evidence for a shell-like effect.

PubMed

Ghosh, Sanjib; Mandal, Sudhansu S

2013-11-15

Motivated by the recent observation of the shell effect in a nanoscale pure superconductor by Bose et al. [Nat. Mater. 9, 550 (2010)], we explore the possible shell-like effect in a strongly disordered superconductor as it is known to produce nanosize superconducting puddles (SPs). We find a remarkable change in the texture of the pairing amplitudes that is responsible for forming the SP, upon monotonic tuning of the average electron density, , and keeping the disorder landscape unaltered. Both the spatially averaged pairing amplitude and the quasiparticle excitation gap oscillate with . This oscillation is due to a rapid change in the low-lying quasiparticle energy spectra and thereby a change in the shapes and positions of the SPs. We establish a correlation between the formation of SPs and the shell-like effect. The experimental consequences of our theory are also discussed.

Fully gapped superconductivity with no sign change in the prototypical heavy-fermion CeCu2Si2

PubMed Central

Yamashita, Takuya; Takenaka, Takaaki; Tokiwa, Yoshifumi; Wilcox, Joseph A.; Mizukami, Yuta; Terazawa, Daiki; Kasahara, Yuichi; Kittaka, Shunichiro; Sakakibara, Toshiro; Konczykowski, Marcin; Seiro, Silvia; Jeevan, Hirale S.; Geibel, Christoph; Putzke, Carsten; Onishi, Takafumi; Ikeda, Hiroaki; Carrington, Antony; Shibauchi, Takasada; Matsuda, Yuji

2017-01-01

In exotic superconductors, including high-Tc copper oxides, the interactions mediating electron Cooper pairing are widely considered to have a magnetic rather than a conventional electron-phonon origin. Interest in this exotic pairing was initiated by the 1979 discovery of heavy-fermion superconductivity in CeCu2Si2, which exhibits strong antiferromagnetic fluctuations. A hallmark of unconventional pairing by anisotropic repulsive interactions is that the superconducting energy gap changes sign as a function of the electron momentum, often leading to nodes where the gap goes to zero. We report low-temperature specific heat, thermal conductivity, and magnetic penetration depth measurements in CeCu2Si2, demonstrating the absence of gap nodes at any point on the Fermi surface. Moreover, electron irradiation experiments reveal that the superconductivity survives even when the electron mean free path becomes substantially shorter than the superconducting coherence length. This indicates that superconductivity is robust against impurities, implying that there is no sign change in the gap function. These results show that, contrary to long-standing belief, heavy electrons with extremely strong Coulomb repulsions can condense into a fully gapped s-wave superconducting state, which has an on-site attractive pairing interaction. PMID:28691082

Evidence for W=0 pairing in repulsive Hubbard square and hexagonal geometries

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Perfetto, Enrico; Stefanucci, Gianluca; Callegari, Agnese; Cini, Michele

2004-08-01

Square and hexagonal lattices with purely repulsive on-site interactions on all sites and appropriate fillings show W=0 pairing, and the effective attractive interaction is due to a symmetry driven correlation effect; the W=0 pairs are two-body singlet eigenstates of the Hamiltonian with vanishing on-site repulsion. We can set up gedanken experiments with these bound pairs. Chains of CuO 4 units connected by weak links provide a test case which displays bound pair hopping and superconducting flux quantization (SFQ). Focusing on the low-energy sector, one obtains an accurate description in terms of an effective hard-core boson Hamiltonian which naturally describes itinerant pairs and SFQ in mesoscopic rings. For the numerical calculations, we take advantage of a recently proposed exact spin-disentangled diagonalization technique which can be generally applied to many-fermion problems and drastically reduces the size of the matrices to be handled. Remarkably, the very same pairing mechanism also works neatly with the wrapped honeycomb lattice, suitable for armchair carbon nanotubes; the binding energy of W=0 pairs depends strongly on the filling and decreases towards a small but non-zero value in the graphite limit.

Fractional statistics and quantum scaling properties of the integrable Penson-Kolb-Hubbard chain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vitoriano, Carlindo; Coutinho-Filho, M. D.

2010-09-01

We investigate the ground-state and low-temperature properties of the integrable version of the Penson-Kolb-Hubbard chain. The model obeys fractional statistical properties, which give rise to fractional elementary excitations and manifest differently in the four regions of the phase diagram U/t versus n , where U is the Coulomb coupling, t is the correlated hopping amplitude, and n is the particle density. In fact, we can find local pair formation, fractionalization of the average occupation number per orbital k , or U - and n -dependent average electric charge per orbital k . We also study the scaling behavior near the U -driven quantum phase transitions and characterize their universality classes. Finally, it is shown that in the regime of parameters where local pair formation is energetically more favorable, the ground state exhibits power-law superconductivity; we also stress that above half filling the pair-hopping term stabilizes local Cooper pairs in the repulsive- U regime for U

Strong interplay between stripe spin fluctuations, nematicity and superconductivity in FeSe

DOE PAGES

Wang, Qisi; Shen, Yao; Pan, Bingying; ...

2015-12-07

In iron-based superconductors the interactions driving the nematic order (that breaks four-fold rotational symmetry in the iron plane) may also mediate the Cooper pairing. The experimental determination of these interactions, which are believed to depend on the orbital or the spin degrees of freedom, is challenging because nematic order occurs at, or slightly above, the ordering temperature of a stripe magnetic phase. In this paper, we study FeSe—which exhibits a nematic (orthorhombic) phase transition at T s = 90 K without antiferromagnetic ordering—by neutron scattering, finding substantial stripe spin fluctuations coupled with the nematicity that are enhanced abruptly on coolingmore » through T s. A sharp spin resonance develops in the superconducting state, whose energy (~4 meV) is consistent with an electron–boson coupling mode revealed by scanning tunnelling spectroscopy. The magnetic spectral weight in FeSe is found to be comparable to that of the iron arsenides. Finally, our results support recent theoretical proposals that both nematicity and superconductivity are driven by spin fluctuations.« less

Strong interplay between stripe spin fluctuations, nematicity and superconductivity in FeSe

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wang, Qisi; Shen, Yao; Pan, Bingying

In iron-based superconductors the interactions driving the nematic order (that breaks four-fold rotational symmetry in the iron plane) may also mediate the Cooper pairing. The experimental determination of these interactions, which are believed to depend on the orbital or the spin degrees of freedom, is challenging because nematic order occurs at, or slightly above, the ordering temperature of a stripe magnetic phase. In this paper, we study FeSe—which exhibits a nematic (orthorhombic) phase transition at T s = 90 K without antiferromagnetic ordering—by neutron scattering, finding substantial stripe spin fluctuations coupled with the nematicity that are enhanced abruptly on coolingmore » through T s. A sharp spin resonance develops in the superconducting state, whose energy (~4 meV) is consistent with an electron–boson coupling mode revealed by scanning tunnelling spectroscopy. The magnetic spectral weight in FeSe is found to be comparable to that of the iron arsenides. Finally, our results support recent theoretical proposals that both nematicity and superconductivity are driven by spin fluctuations.« less

Fragmentation of fast Josephson vortices and breakdown of ordered states by moving topological defects

DOE PAGES

Sheikhzada, Ahmad; Gurevich, Alex

2015-12-07

Topological defects such as vortices, dislocations or domain walls define many important effects in superconductivity, superfluidity, magnetism, liquid crystals, and plasticity of solids. Here we address the breakdown of the topologically-protected stability of such defects driven by strong external forces. We focus on Josephson vortices that appear at planar weak links of suppressed superconductivity which have attracted much attention for electronic applications, new sources of THz radiation, and low-dissipative computing. Our numerical simulations show that a rapidly moving vortex driven by a constant current becomes unstable with respect to generation of vortex-antivortex pairs caused by Cherenkov radiation. As a result,more » vortices and antivortices become spatially separated and accumulate continuously on the opposite sides of an expanding dissipative domain. This effect is most pronounced in thin film edge Josephson junctions at low temperatures where a single vortex can switch the whole junction into a resistive state at currents well below the Josephson critical current. In conclusion, our work gives a new insight into instability of a moving topological defect which destroys global long-range order in a way that is remarkably similar to the crack propagation in solids.« less

Thermal transport in topological-insulator-based superconducting hybrid structures with mixed singlet and triplet pairing states.

PubMed

Li, Hai; Zhao, Yuan Yuan

2017-11-22

In the framework of the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equation, we investigate the thermal transport properties in topological-insulator-based superconducting hybrid structures with mixed spin-singlet and spin-triplet pairing states, and emphasize the different manifestations of the spin-singlet and spin-triplet pairing states in the thermal transport signatures. It is revealed that the temperature-dependent differential thermal conductance strongly depends on the components of the pairing state, and the negative differential thermal conductance only occurs in the spin-singlet pairing state dominated regime. It is also found that the thermal conductance is profoundly sensitive to the components of the pairing state. In the spin-singlet pairing state controlled regime, the thermal conductance obviously oscillates with the phase difference and junction length. With increasing the proportion of the spin-triplet pairing state, the oscillating characteristic of the thermal conductance fades out distinctly. These results suggest an alternative route for distinguishing the components of pairing states in topological-insulator-based superconducting hybrid structures.

Tuning the Pairing Interaction in a d -Wave Superconductor by Paramagnons Injected through Interfaces

DOE PAGES

Naritsuka, M.; Rosa, P. F. S.; Luo, Yongkang; ...

2018-05-04

Unconventional superconductivity and magnetism are intertwined on a microscopic level in a wide class of materials. A new approach to this most fundamental and hotly debated issue focuses on the role of interactions between superconducting electrons and bosonic fluctuations at the interface between adjacent layers in heterostructures. In this paper, we fabricate hybrid superlattices consisting of alternating atomic layers of the heavy-fermion superconductormore » $${\\mathrm{CeCoIn}}_{5}$$ and antiferromagnetic (AFM) metal $${\\mathrm{CeRhIn}}_{5}$$, in which the AFM order can be suppressed by applying pressure. We find that the superconducting and AFM states coexist in spatially separated layers, but their mutual coupling via the interface significantly modifies the superconducting properties. An analysis of upper critical fields reveals that, upon suppressing the AFM order by applied pressure, the force binding superconducting electron pairs acquires an extreme strong-coupling nature. Finally, this demonstrates that superconducting pairing can be tuned nontrivially by magnetic fluctuations (paramagnons) injected through the interface.« less

Tuning the Pairing Interaction in a d -Wave Superconductor by Paramagnons Injected through Interfaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Naritsuka, M.; Rosa, P. F. S.; Luo, Yongkang; Kasahara, Y.; Tokiwa, Y.; Ishii, T.; Miyake, S.; Terashima, T.; Shibauchi, T.; Ronning, F.; Thompson, J. D.; Matsuda, Y.

2018-05-01

Unconventional superconductivity and magnetism are intertwined on a microscopic level in a wide class of materials. A new approach to this most fundamental and hotly debated issue focuses on the role of interactions between superconducting electrons and bosonic fluctuations at the interface between adjacent layers in heterostructures. Here we fabricate hybrid superlattices consisting of alternating atomic layers of the heavy-fermion superconductor CeCoIn5 and antiferromagnetic (AFM) metal CeRhIn5 , in which the AFM order can be suppressed by applying pressure. We find that the superconducting and AFM states coexist in spatially separated layers, but their mutual coupling via the interface significantly modifies the superconducting properties. An analysis of upper critical fields reveals that, upon suppressing the AFM order by applied pressure, the force binding superconducting electron pairs acquires an extreme strong-coupling nature. This demonstrates that superconducting pairing can be tuned nontrivially by magnetic fluctuations (paramagnons) injected through the interface.

Remarkable Stability of Charge Density Wave Order in La 1.875Ba 0.125CuO 4

DOE PAGES

Chen, X. M.; Thampy, V.; Mazzoli, C.; ...

2016-10-11

The occurrence of charge-density-wave (CDW) order in underdoped cuprates is now well established, although the precise nature of the CDW and its relationship with superconductivity is not. Theoretical proposals include contrasting ideas such as that pairing may be driven by CDW uctuations or that static CDWs may intertwine with a spatially-modulated superconducting wave function. We test the dynamics of CDW order in La 1.875Ba 0.125CuO 4 by using x-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (XPCS) at the CDW wave vector, detected resonantly at the Cu L 3-edge. We nd that the CDW domains are strikingly static, with no evidence of signi cantmore » uctuations up to 2 3/4 hours. We discuss the implications of these results for some of the competing theories.« less

Magnetic Fluctuations in Pair-Density-Wave Superconductors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Christensen, Morten H.; Jacobsen, Henrik; Maier, Thomas A.; Andersen, Brian M.

2016-04-01

Pair-density-wave superconductivity constitutes a novel electronic condensate proposed to be realized in certain unconventional superconductors. Establishing its potential existence is important for our fundamental understanding of superconductivity in correlated materials. Here we compute the dynamical magnetic susceptibility in the presence of a pair-density-wave ordered state and study its fingerprints on the spin-wave spectrum including the neutron resonance. In contrast to the standard case of d -wave superconductivity, we show that the pair-density-wave phase exhibits neither a spin gap nor a magnetic resonance peak, in agreement with a recent neutron scattering experiment on underdoped La1.905 Ba0.095 CuO4 [Z. Xu et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 177002 (2014)].

Conceptual design of the superconducting magnet for the 250 MeV proton cyclotron.

PubMed

Ren, Yong; Liu, Xiaogang; Gao, Xiang

2016-01-01

The superconducting cyclotron is of great importance to treat cancer parts of the body. To reduce the operation costs, a superconducting magnet system for the 250 MeV proton cyclotron was designed to confirm the feasibility of the superconducting cyclotron. The superconducting magnet system consists of a pair of split coils, the cryostat and a pair of binary high temperature superconductor current leads. The superconducting magnet can reach a central magnetic field of about 1.155 T at 160 A. The three GM cryocooler with cooling capacities of 1.5 W at 4.5 K and 35 W at 50 K and one GM cryocooler of 100 W at 50 K were adopted to cool the superconducting magnet system through the thermosiphon technology. The four GM cryocoolers were used to cool the superconducting magnet to realize zero evaporation of the liquid helium.

Current driven transition from Abrikosov-Josephson to Josephson-like vortex in mesoscopic lateral S/S’/S superconducting weak links

PubMed Central

Carapella, G.; Sabatino, P.; Barone, C.; Pagano, S.; Gombos, M.

2016-01-01

Vortices are topological defects accounting for many important effects in superconductivity, superfluidity, and magnetism. Here we address the stability of a small number of such excitations driven by strong external forces. We focus on Abrikosov-Josephson vortex that appears in lateral superconducting S/S’/S weak links with suppressed superconductivity in S’. In such a system the vortex is nucleated and confined in the narrow S’ region by means of a small magnetic field and moves under the effect of a force proportional to an applied electrical current with a velocity proportional to the measured voltage. Our numerical simulations show that when a slow moving Abrikosov-Josephson vortex is driven by a strong constant current it becomes unstable with respect to a faster moving excitation: the Josephon-like vortex. Such a current-driven transition explains the structured dissipative branches that we observe in the voltage-current curve of the weak link. When vortex matter is strongly confined phenomena as magnetoresistance oscillations and reentrance of superconductivity can possibly occur. We experimentally observe these phenomena in our weak links. PMID:27752137

Temperature Dependence of Quasiparticle Spectral Weight and Coherence in High Tc Superconductors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

He, Yang; Zhang, Jessie; Hoffman, Jennifer; Hoffman Lab Team

2014-03-01

Superconductivity arises from the Cooper pairing of quasiparticles on the Fermi surface. Understanding the formation of Cooper pairs is an essential step towards unveiling the mechanism of high Tc superconductivity. We compare scanning tunneling microscope investigations of the temperature dependence of quasiparticle spectral weight and quasiparticle interference in several families of high Tc materials. We calculate the coherent spectral weight related to superconductivity, despite the coexistence of competing orders. The relation between pairing temperature and coherent spectral weight is discussed. We acknowledge support by the New York Community Trust-George Merck Fund.

Superconductivity switch from spin-singlet to -triplet pairing in a topological superconducting junction.

PubMed

Tao, Ze; Chen, F J; Zhou, L Y; Li, Bin; Tao, Y C; Wang, J

2018-06-06

The interedge coupling is the cardinal characteristic of the narrow quantum spin Hall (QSH) insulator, and thus could bring about exotic transport phenomena. Herein, we present a theoretical investigation of the spin-resolved Andreev reflection (AR) in a QSH insulator strip touching on two neighbouring ferromagnetic insulators and one s-wave superconductor. It is demonstrated that, due to the interplay of the interedge coupling and ferromagnetic configuration, there could be not only usual local ARs leading to the spin-singlet pairing with the incident electron and Andreev-reflected hole from different spin subbands, but also novel local ARs giving rise to the spin-triplet pairing from the same spin subband. However, only the latter exists in the absence of the interedge coupling, and therefore the two pairings in turn testify the helical spin texture of the edge states. By proper tuning of the band structures of the ferromagnetic layers, under the resonance bias voltage, the usual and novel local ARs of [Formula: see text] can be all exhibited, resulting in fully spin-polarized pure spin-singlet superconductivity and pure spin-triplet superconductivity, respectively, which suggests a superconductivity switch from spin-singlet to -triplet pairing by electrical control. The results can be experimentally confirmed by the tunneling conductance and the noise power.

Superconductivity switch from spin-singlet to -triplet pairing in a topological superconducting junction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tao, Ze; Chen, F. J.; Zhou, L. Y.; Li, Bin; Tao, Y. C.; Wang, J.

2018-06-01

The interedge coupling is the cardinal characteristic of the narrow quantum spin Hall (QSH) insulator, and thus could bring about exotic transport phenomena. Herein, we present a theoretical investigation of the spin-resolved Andreev reflection (AR) in a QSH insulator strip touching on two neighbouring ferromagnetic insulators and one s-wave superconductor. It is demonstrated that, due to the interplay of the interedge coupling and ferromagnetic configuration, there could be not only usual local ARs leading to the spin-singlet pairing with the incident electron and Andreev-reflected hole from different spin subbands, but also novel local ARs giving rise to the spin-triplet pairing from the same spin subband. However, only the latter exists in the absence of the interedge coupling, and therefore the two pairings in turn testify the helical spin texture of the edge states. By proper tuning of the band structures of the ferromagnetic layers, under the resonance bias voltage, the usual and novel local ARs of can be all exhibited, resulting in fully spin-polarized pure spin-singlet superconductivity and pure spin-triplet superconductivity, respectively, which suggests a superconductivity switch from spin-singlet to -triplet pairing by electrical control. The results can be experimentally confirmed by the tunneling conductance and the noise power.

On local pairs vs. BCS: Quo vadis high-T c superconductivity

DOE PAGES

Pavuna, D.; Dubuis, G.; Bollinger, A. T.; ...

2016-07-28

Since the discovery of high-temperature superconductivity in cuprates, proposals have been made that pairing may be local, in particular in underdoped samples. Furthermore, we briefly review evidence for local pairs from our experiments on thin films of La 2–xSr xCuO 4, synthesized by atomic layer-by-layer molecular beam epitaxy (ALL-MBE).

Lightwave-driven quasiparticle collisions on a sub-cycle timescale

PubMed Central

Langer, F.; Hohenleutner, M.; Schmid, C.; Poellmann, C.; Nagler, P.; Korn, T.; Schüller, C.; Sherwin, M. S.; Huttner, U.; Steiner, J. T.; Koch, S. W.; Kira, M.; Huber, R.

2016-01-01

Ever since Ernest Rutherford first scattered α-particles from gold foils1, collision experiments have revealed unique insights into atoms, nuclei, and elementary particles2. In solids, many-body correlations also lead to characteristic resonances3, called quasiparticles, such as excitons, dropletons4, polarons, or Cooper pairs. Their structure and dynamics define spectacular macroscopic phenomena, ranging from Mott insulating states via spontaneous spin and charge order to high-temperature superconductivity5. Fundamental research would immensely benefit from quasiparticle colliders, but the notoriously short lifetimes of quasiparticles6 have challenged practical solutions. Here we exploit lightwave-driven charge transport7–24, the backbone of attosecond science9–13, to explore ultrafast quasiparticle collisions directly in the time domain: A femtosecond optical pulse creates excitonic electron–hole pairs in the layered dichalcogenide tungsten diselenide while a strong terahertz field accelerates and collides the electrons with the holes. The underlying wave packet dynamics, including collision, pair annihilation, quantum interference and dephasing, are detected as light emission in high-order spectral sidebands17–19 of the optical excitation. A full quantum theory explains our observations microscopically. This approach opens the door to collision experiments with a broad variety of complex quasiparticles and suggests a promising new way of sub-femtosecond pulse generation. PMID:27172045

Local destruction of superconductivity by non-magnetic impurities in mesoscopic iron-based superconductors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Jun; Ji, Min; Schwarz, Tobias; Ke, Xiaoxing; van Tendeloo, Gustaaf; Yuan, Jie; Pereira, Paulo J.; Huang, Ya; Zhang, Gufei; Feng, Hai-Luke; Yuan, Ya-Hua; Hatano, Takeshi; Kleiner, Reinhold; Koelle, Dieter; Chibotaru, Liviu F.; Yamaura, Kazunari; Wang, Hua-Bing; Wu, Pei-Heng; Takayama-Muromachi, Eiji; Vanacken, Johan; Moshchalkov, Victor V.

2015-07-01

The determination of the pairing symmetry is one of the most crucial issues for the iron-based superconductors, for which various scenarios are discussed controversially. Non-magnetic impurity substitution is one of the most promising approaches to address the issue, because the pair-breaking mechanism from the non-magnetic impurities should be different for various models. Previous substitution experiments demonstrated that the non-magnetic zinc can suppress the superconductivity of various iron-based superconductors. Here we demonstrate the local destruction of superconductivity by non-magnetic zinc impurities in Ba0.5K0.5Fe2As2 by exploring phase-slip phenomena in a mesoscopic structure with 119 × 102 nm2 cross-section. The impurities suppress superconductivity in a three-dimensional `Swiss cheese'-like pattern with in-plane and out-of-plane characteristic lengths slightly below ~1.34 nm. This causes the superconducting order parameter to vary along abundant narrow channels with effective cross-section of a few square nanometres. The local destruction of superconductivity can be related to Cooper pair breaking by non-magnetic impurities.

Local destruction of superconductivity by non-magnetic impurities in mesoscopic iron-based superconductors

PubMed Central

Li, Jun; Ji, Min; Schwarz, Tobias; Ke, Xiaoxing; Van Tendeloo, Gustaaf; Yuan, Jie; Pereira, Paulo J.; Huang, Ya; Zhang, Gufei; Feng, Hai-Luke; Yuan, Ya-Hua; Hatano, Takeshi; Kleiner, Reinhold; Koelle, Dieter; Chibotaru, Liviu F.; Yamaura, Kazunari; Wang, Hua-Bing; Wu, Pei-Heng; Takayama-Muromachi, Eiji; Vanacken, Johan; Moshchalkov, Victor V.

2015-01-01

The determination of the pairing symmetry is one of the most crucial issues for the iron-based superconductors, for which various scenarios are discussed controversially. Non-magnetic impurity substitution is one of the most promising approaches to address the issue, because the pair-breaking mechanism from the non-magnetic impurities should be different for various models. Previous substitution experiments demonstrated that the non-magnetic zinc can suppress the superconductivity of various iron-based superconductors. Here we demonstrate the local destruction of superconductivity by non-magnetic zinc impurities in Ba0.5K0.5Fe2As2 by exploring phase-slip phenomena in a mesoscopic structure with 119 × 102 nm2 cross-section. The impurities suppress superconductivity in a three-dimensional ‘Swiss cheese'-like pattern with in-plane and out-of-plane characteristic lengths slightly below ∼1.34 nm. This causes the superconducting order parameter to vary along abundant narrow channels with effective cross-section of a few square nanometres. The local destruction of superconductivity can be related to Cooper pair breaking by non-magnetic impurities. PMID:26139568

Local destruction of superconductivity by non-magnetic impurities in mesoscopic iron-based superconductors.

PubMed

Li, Jun; Ji, Min; Schwarz, Tobias; Ke, Xiaoxing; Van Tendeloo, Gustaaf; Yuan, Jie; Pereira, Paulo J; Huang, Ya; Zhang, Gufei; Feng, Hai-Luke; Yuan, Ya-Hua; Hatano, Takeshi; Kleiner, Reinhold; Koelle, Dieter; Chibotaru, Liviu F; Yamaura, Kazunari; Wang, Hua-Bing; Wu, Pei-Heng; Takayama-Muromachi, Eiji; Vanacken, Johan; Moshchalkov, Victor V

2015-07-03

The determination of the pairing symmetry is one of the most crucial issues for the iron-based superconductors, for which various scenarios are discussed controversially. Non-magnetic impurity substitution is one of the most promising approaches to address the issue, because the pair-breaking mechanism from the non-magnetic impurities should be different for various models. Previous substitution experiments demonstrated that the non-magnetic zinc can suppress the superconductivity of various iron-based superconductors. Here we demonstrate the local destruction of superconductivity by non-magnetic zinc impurities in Ba0.5K0.5Fe2As2 by exploring phase-slip phenomena in a mesoscopic structure with 119 × 102 nm(2) cross-section. The impurities suppress superconductivity in a three-dimensional 'Swiss cheese'-like pattern with in-plane and out-of-plane characteristic lengths slightly below ∼1.34 nm. This causes the superconducting order parameter to vary along abundant narrow channels with effective cross-section of a few square nanometres. The local destruction of superconductivity can be related to Cooper pair breaking by non-magnetic impurities.

Electron—phonon Coupling and the Superconducting Phase Diagram of the LaAlO3—SrTiO3 Interface

PubMed Central

Boschker, Hans; Richter, Christoph; Fillis-Tsirakis, Evangelos; Schneider, Christof W.; Mannhart, Jochen

2015-01-01

The superconductor at the LaAlO3—SrTiO3 interface provides a model system for the study of two-dimensional superconductivity in the dilute carrier density limit. Here we experimentally address the pairing mechanism in this superconductor. We extract the electron—phonon spectral function from tunneling spectra and conclude, without ruling out contributions of further pairing channels, that electron—phonon mediated pairing is strong enough to account for the superconducting critical temperatures. Furthermore, we discuss the electron—phonon coupling in relation to the superconducting phase diagram. The electron—phonon spectral function is independent of the carrier density, except for a small part of the phase diagram in the underdoped region. The tunneling measurements reveal that the increase of the chemical potential with increasing carrier density levels off and is zero in the overdoped region of the phase diagram. This indicates that the additionally induced carriers do not populate the band that hosts the superconducting state and that the superconducting order parameter therefore is weakened by the presence of charge carriers in another band. PMID:26169351

Two gaps make a high-temperature superconductor?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hüfner, S.; Hossain, M. A.; Damascelli, A.; Sawatzky, G. A.

2008-06-01

One of the keys to the high-temperature superconductivity puzzle is the identification of the energy scales associated with the emergence of a coherent condensate of superconducting electron pairs. These might provide a measure of the pairing strength and of the coherence of the superfluid, and ultimately reveal the nature of the elusive pairing mechanism in the superconducting cuprates. To this end, a great deal of effort has been devoted to investigating the connection between the superconducting transition temperature Tc and the normal-state pseudogap crossover temperature T*. Here we present a review of a large body of experimental data which suggests a coexisting two-gap scenario, i.e. superconducting gap and pseudogap, over the whole superconducting dome. We focus on spectroscopic data from cuprate systems characterized by T_c^max\\sim 95\\,K , such as Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ, YBa2Cu3O7-δ, Tl2Ba2CuO6+δ and HgBa2CuO4+δ, with particular emphasis on the Bi-compound which has been the most extensively studied with single-particle spectroscopies.

Nematic and chiral superconductivity induced by odd-parity fluctuations

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wu, Fengcheng; Martin, Ivar

Recent experiments indicate that superconductivity in Bi 2Se 3 intercalated with Cu, Nb, or Sr is nematic with rotational symmetry breaking. Motivated by this observation, we present a model study of nematic and chiral superconductivity induced by odd-parity fluctuations. Additionally, we show that odd-parity fluctuations in the two-component E u representation of D 3d crystal point group can generate attractive interaction in both the even-parity s-wave and odd-parity E-u pairing channels, but repulsive interaction in other odd-parity pairing channels. Coulomb repulsion can suppress s-wave pairing relative to E u pairing, and thus the latter can have a higher critical temperature.more » E u pairing has two distinct phases: a nematic phase and a chiral phase, both of which can be realized in our model. Finally, when s-wave and E u pairings have similar instability temperature, we find an intermediate phase in which both types of pairing coexist.« less

Nematic and chiral superconductivity induced by odd-parity fluctuations

DOE PAGES

Wu, Fengcheng; Martin, Ivar

2017-10-09

Recent experiments indicate that superconductivity in Bi 2Se 3 intercalated with Cu, Nb, or Sr is nematic with rotational symmetry breaking. Motivated by this observation, we present a model study of nematic and chiral superconductivity induced by odd-parity fluctuations. Additionally, we show that odd-parity fluctuations in the two-component E u representation of D 3d crystal point group can generate attractive interaction in both the even-parity s-wave and odd-parity E-u pairing channels, but repulsive interaction in other odd-parity pairing channels. Coulomb repulsion can suppress s-wave pairing relative to E u pairing, and thus the latter can have a higher critical temperature.more » E u pairing has two distinct phases: a nematic phase and a chiral phase, both of which can be realized in our model. Finally, when s-wave and E u pairings have similar instability temperature, we find an intermediate phase in which both types of pairing coexist.« less

μ SR Investigation of Superconducting PbTaSe2

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wilson, Murray; Hallas, Alannah; Cai, Yipeng; Guo, Shengli; Gong, Zizhou; Ali, Mazhar; Cava, Robert; Uemura, Yasutomo; Luke, Graeme

Noncentrosymmetric superconductors are a topic of considerable interest in the condensed matter physics community. These materials have the potential to exhibit exotic superconducting states, particularly in the presence of strong spin orbit coupling. PbTaSe2 is a noncentrosymmetric material which has very strong spin orbit coupling, and is superconducting with a TC of 3.6 K. Previous studies of this material have identified exotic properties such as Dirac cones gapped by spin-orbit coupling, a topological semi-metal state, and possible multi-band superconductivity. To further explore this material, it is of considerable interest to investigate the pairing symmetry of the superconducting state, and determine whether odd-parity superconductivity may exist. In this talk we will present a μSR investigation of the penetration depth temperature dependece to infer the pairing symmetry. We will also present zero field μSR measurements which suggest that this material has an even-parity superconducting state.

Spectroscopic signatures of different symmetries of the superconducting order parameter in metal-decorated graphene

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saari, Timo; Nieminen, Jouko; Bansil, Arun

2017-06-01

Motivated by the recent experiments indicating superconductivity in metal-decorated graphene sheets, we investigate their quasi-particle structure within the framework of an effective tight-binding Hamiltonian augmented by appropriate BCS-like pairing terms for p-type order parameter. The normal state band structure of graphene is modified not only through interaction with adsorbed metal atoms, but also due to the folding of bands at Brillouin zone boundaries resulting from a \\sqrt{3}× \\sqrt{3}R{{30}\\circ} reconstruction. Several different types of pairing symmetries are analyzed utilizing Nambu-Gorkov Green’s function techniques to show that p+\\text{i}p -symmetric nearest-neighbor pairing yields the most enhanced superconducting gap. The character of the order parameter depends on the nature of the atomic orbitals involved in the pairing process and exhibits interesting angular and radial asymmetries. Finally, we suggest a method to distinguish between singlet and triplet type superconductivity in the presence of magnetic substitutional impurities using scanning tunneling spectroscopy.

Signature of magnetic-dependent gapless odd frequency states at superconductor/ferromagnet interfaces

PubMed Central

Di Bernardo, A.; Diesch, S.; Gu, Y.; Linder, J.; Divitini, G.; Ducati, C.; Scheer, E.; Blamire, M.G.; Robinson, J.W.A.

2015-01-01

The theory of superconductivity developed by Bardeen, Cooper and Schrieffer (BCS) explains the stabilization of electron pairs into a spin-singlet, even frequency, state by the formation of an energy gap within which the density of states is zero. At a superconductor interface with an inhomogeneous ferromagnet, a gapless odd frequency superconducting state is predicted, in which the Cooper pairs are in a spin-triplet state. Although indirect evidence for such a state has been obtained, the gap structure and pairing symmetry have not so far been determined. Here we report scanning tunnelling spectroscopy of Nb superconducting films proximity coupled to epitaxial Ho. These measurements reveal pronounced changes to the Nb subgap superconducting density of states on driving the Ho through a metamagnetic transition from a helical antiferromagnetic to a homogeneous ferromagnetic state for which a BCS-like gap is recovered. The results prove odd frequency spin-triplet superconductivity at superconductor/inhomogeneous magnet interfaces. PMID:26329811

In-gap quasiparticle excitations induced by non-magnetic Cu impurities in Na(Fe0.96Co0.03Cu0.01)As revealed by scanning tunnelling spectroscopy

PubMed Central

Yang, Huan; Wang, Zhenyu; Fang, Delong; Deng, Qiang; Wang, Qiang-Hua; Xiang, Yuan-Yuan; Yang, Yang; Wen, Hai-Hu

2013-01-01

The origin of superconductivity in the iron pnictides remains unclear. One suggestion is that superconductivity in these materials has a magnetic origin, which would imply a sign-reversal s± pairing symmetry. Another suggests it is the result of orbital fluctuations, which would imply a sign-equal s++ pairing symmetry. There is no consensus yet which of these two distinct and contrasting pairing symmetries is the right one in iron pnictide superconductors. Here we explore the nature of the pairing symmetry in the superconducting state of Na(Fe0.97−xCo0.03Cux)As by probing the effect of scattering of Cooper pairs by non-magnetic Cu impurities. Using scanning tunnelling spectroscopy, we identify the in-gap quasiparticle states induced by the Cu impurities, showing signatures of Cooper pair breaking by these non-magnetic impurities–a process that is only consistent with s± pairing. This experiment provides strong evidence for the s± pairing. PMID:24248097

Superconductivity in an electron band just above the Fermi level: possible route to BCS-BEC superconductivity.

PubMed

Okazaki, K; Ito, Y; Ota, Y; Kotani, Y; Shimojima, T; Kiss, T; Watanabe, S; Chen, C-T; Niitaka, S; Hanaguri, T; Takagi, H; Chainani, A; Shin, S

2014-02-28

Conventional superconductivity follows Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer(BCS) theory of electrons-pairing in momentum-space, while superfluidity is the Bose-Einstein condensation(BEC) of atoms paired in real-space. These properties of solid metals and ultra-cold gases, respectively, are connected by the BCS-BEC crossover. Here we investigate the band dispersions in FeTe(0.6)Se(0.4)(Tc = 14.5 K ~ 1.2 meV) in an accessible range below and above the Fermi level(EF) using ultra-high resolution laser angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. We uncover an electron band lying just 0.7 meV (~8 K) above EF at the Γ-point, which shows a sharp superconducting coherence peak with gap formation below Tc. The estimated superconducting gap Δ and Fermi energy [Symbol: see text]F indicate composite superconductivity in an iron-based superconductor, consisting of strong-coupling BEC in the electron band and weak-coupling BCS-like superconductivity in the hole band. The study identifies the possible route to BCS-BEC superconductivity.

Three-dimensional superconducting gap in FeSe from angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kushnirenko, Y. S.; Fedorov, A. V.; Haubold, E.; Thirupathaiah, S.; Wolf, T.; Aswartham, S.; Morozov, I.; Kim, T. K.; Büchner, B.; Borisenko, S. V.

2018-05-01

We present a systematic angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy study of the superconducting gap in FeSe. The gap function is determined in a full Brillouin zone including all Fermi surfaces and kz dependence. We find significant anisotropy of the superconducting gap in all momentum directions. While the in-plane anisotropy can be explained by both nematicity-induced pairing anisotropy and orbital-selective pairing, the kz anisotropy requires an additional refinement of the theoretical approaches.

Probing the unconventional superconducting state of LiFeAs by quasiparticle interference.

PubMed

Hänke, Torben; Sykora, Steffen; Schlegel, Ronny; Baumann, Danny; Harnagea, Luminita; Wurmehl, Sabine; Daghofer, Maria; Büchner, Bernd; van den Brink, Jeroen; Hess, Christian

2012-03-23

A crucial step in revealing the nature of unconventional superconductivity is to investigate the symmetry of the superconducting order parameter. Scanning tunneling spectroscopy has proven a powerful technique to probe this symmetry by measuring the quasiparticle interference (QPI) which sensitively depends on the superconducting pairing mechanism. A particularly well-suited material to apply this technique is the stoichiometric superconductor LiFeAs as it features clean, charge neutral cleaved surfaces without surface states and a relatively high T(c)∼18  K. Our data reveal that in LiFeAs the quasiparticle scattering is governed by a van Hove singularity at the center of the Brillouin zone which is in stark contrast to other pnictide superconductors where nesting is crucial for both scattering and s(±) superconductivity. Indeed, within a minimal model and using the most elementary order parameters, calculations of the QPI suggest a dominating role of the holelike bands for the quasiparticle scattering. Our theoretical findings do not support the elementary singlet pairing symmetries s(++), s(±), and d wave. This brings to mind that the superconducting pairing mechanism in LiFeAs is based on an unusual pairing symmetry such as an elementary p wave (which provides optimal agreement between the experimental data and QPI simulations) or a more complex order parameter (e.g., s+id wave symmetry).

Impurity Induced Phase Competition and Supersolidity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Karmakar, Madhuparna; Ganesh, R.

2017-12-01

Several material families show competition between superconductivity and other orders. When such competition is driven by doping, it invariably involves spatial inhomogeneities which can seed competing orders. We study impurity-induced charge order in the attractive Hubbard model, a prototypical model for competition between superconductivity and charge density wave order. We show that a single impurity induces a charge-ordered texture over a length scale set by the energy cost of the competing phase. Our results are consistent with a strong-coupling field theory proposed earlier in which superconducting and charge order parameters form components of an SO(3) vector field. To discuss the effects of multiple impurities, we focus on two cases: correlated and random distributions. In the correlated case, the CDW puddles around each impurity overlap coherently leading to a "supersolid" phase with coexisting pairing and charge order. In contrast, a random distribution of impurities does not lead to coherent CDW formation. We argue that the energy lowering from coherent ordering can have a feedback effect, driving correlations between impurities. This can be understood as arising from an RKKY-like interaction, mediated by impurity textures. We discuss implications for charge order in the cuprates and doped CDW materials such as NbSe2.

Orbitally limited pair-density-wave phase of multilayer superconductors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Möckli, David; Yanase, Youichi; Sigrist, Manfred

2018-04-01

We investigate the magnetic field dependence of an ideal superconducting vortex lattice in the parity-mixed pair-density-wave phase of multilayer superconductors within a circular cell Ginzburg-Landau approach. In multilayer systems, due to local inversion symmetry breaking, a Rashba spin-orbit coupling is induced at the outer layers. This combined with a perpendicular paramagnetic (Pauli) limiting magnetic field stabilizes a staggered layer dependent pair-density-wave phase in the superconducting singlet channel. The high-field pair-density-wave phase is separated from the low-field BCS phase by a first-order phase transition. The motivating guiding question in this paper is: What is the minimal necessary Maki parameter αM for the appearance of the pair-density-wave phase of a superconducting trilayer system? To address this problem we generalize the circular cell method for the regular flux-line lattice of a type-II superconductor to include paramagnetic depairing effects. Then, we apply the model to the trilayer system, where each of the layers are characterized by Ginzburg-Landau parameter κ0 and a Maki parameter αM. We find that when the spin-orbit Rashba interaction compares to the superconducting condensation energy, the orbitally limited pair-density-wave phase stabilizes for Maki parameters αM>10 .

Effective theory of exotic superconductivity in LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interfaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Esmailzadeh, Haniyeh; Moghaddam, Ali G.

2018-05-01

Motivated by experimental and theoretical works about superconductivity at the oxide interfaces, we provide a simple model for possible unconventional pairings inside the exotic two-dimensional electron gas formed in heterostructures of SrTiO3 and LaAlO3. At the low energy limit, the electron gas at the interfaces is usually modeled with an effective three band model considering of 3d t2g orbitals which are slightly coupled by atomic spin-orbit couplings (SOC). Considering direct superconducting pairing in two higher delocalized bands and by exploiting a perturbative scheme based on canonical transformation, we derive the effective pairing amplitudes with possibly exotic nature inside the localized dxy band as well as various inter-band pairing components. In particular we show that equal-spin triplet pairings are possible between the band dxy and any of other dxz and dyz bands. In addition weaker effective pairings take place inside the localized band itself and between delocalized dxz and dyz bands with singlet and opposite-spin triplet characters. These unconventional effective pairings are indeed mediated by SOC-induced higher order virtual transitions between the bands and particularly into the localized band. Our model suggest that unconventional effective superconductivity is possible at oxide interfaces, simply, due to the special band structure and important role of atomic SOC and perhaps other magnetic effects present at these heterostructures.

Orbital-selective pairing and superconductivity in iron selenides

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nica, Emilian M.; Yu, Rong; Si, Qimiao

2017-12-01

An important challenge in condensed matter physics is understanding iron-based superconductors. Among these systems, the iron selenides hold the record for highest superconducting transition temperature and pose especially striking puzzles regarding the nature of superconductivity. The pairing state of the alkaline iron selenides appears to be of d-wave type based on the observation of a resonance mode in neutron scattering, while it seems to be of s-wave type from the nodeless gaps observed everywhere on the Fermi surface. Here we propose an orbital-selective pairing state, dubbed sτ3, as a natural explanation of these disparate properties. The pairing function, containing a matrix τ3 in the basis of 3d-electron orbitals, does not commute with the kinetic part of the Hamiltonian. This dictates the existence of both intraband and interband pairing terms in the band basis. A spin resonance arises from a d-wave-type sign change in the intraband pairing component, whereas the quasiparticle excitation is fully gapped on the FS due to an s-wave-like form factor associated with the addition in quadrature of the intraband and interband pairing terms. We demonstrate that this pairing state is energetically favored when the electron correlation effects are orbitally selective. More generally, our results illustrate how the multiband nature of correlated electrons affords unusual types of superconducting states, thereby shedding new light not only on the iron-based materials but also on a broad range of other unconventional superconductors such as heavy fermion and organic systems.

Magnetoelectric Andreev Effect due to Proximity-Induced Nonunitary Triplet Superconductivity in Helical Metals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tkachov, G.

2017-01-01

Noncentrosymmetric superconductors exhibit the magnetoelectric effect, which manifests itself in the appearance of the magnetic spin polarization in response to a dissipationless electric current (supercurrent). While much attention has been dedicated to the thermodynamic version of this phenomenon (Edelstein effect), nonequilibrium transport magnetoelectric effects have not been explored yet. We propose the magnetoelectric Andreev effect (MAE), which consists in the generation of spin-polarized triplet Andreev conductance by an electric supercurrent. The MAE stems from the spin polarization of the Cooper-pair condensate due to a supercurrent-induced nonunitary triplet pairing. We propose the realization of such a nonunitary pairing and MAE in superconducting proximity structures based on two-dimensional helical metals—strongly spin-orbit-coupled electronic systems with the Dirac spectrum such as the topological surface states. Our results uncover an unexplored route towards electrically controlled superconducting spintronics and are a smoking gun for induced unconventional superconductivity in spin-orbit-coupled materials.

Rashba sandwiches with topological superconducting phases

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Volpez, Yanick; Loss, Daniel; Klinovaja, Jelena

2018-05-01

We introduce a versatile heterostructure harboring various topological superconducting phases characterized by the presence of helical, chiral, or unidirectional edge states. Changing parameters, such as an effective Zeeman field or chemical potential, one can tune between these three topological phases in the same setup. Our model relies only on conventional nontopological ingredients. The bilayer setup consists of an s -wave superconductor sandwiched between two two-dimensional electron gas layers with strong Rashba spin-orbit interaction. The interplay between two different pairing mechanisms, proximity induced direct and crossed Andreev superconducting pairings, gives rise to multiple topological phases. In particular, helical edge states occur if crossed Andreev superconducting pairing is dominant. In addition, an in-plane Zeeman field leads to a two-dimensional gapless topological phase with unidirectional edge states, which were previously predicted to exist only in noncentrosymmetric superconductors. If the Zeeman field is tilted out of the plane, the system is in a topological phase hosting chiral edge states.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Naritsuka, M.; Rosa, P. F. S.; Luo, Yongkang

Unconventional superconductivity and magnetism are intertwined on a microscopic level in a wide class of materials. A new approach to this most fundamental and hotly debated issue focuses on the role of interactions between superconducting electrons and bosonic fluctuations at the interface between adjacent layers in heterostructures. In this paper, we fabricate hybrid superlattices consisting of alternating atomic layers of the heavy-fermion superconductormore » $${\\mathrm{CeCoIn}}_{5}$$ and antiferromagnetic (AFM) metal $${\\mathrm{CeRhIn}}_{5}$$, in which the AFM order can be suppressed by applying pressure. We find that the superconducting and AFM states coexist in spatially separated layers, but their mutual coupling via the interface significantly modifies the superconducting properties. An analysis of upper critical fields reveals that, upon suppressing the AFM order by applied pressure, the force binding superconducting electron pairs acquires an extreme strong-coupling nature. Finally, this demonstrates that superconducting pairing can be tuned nontrivially by magnetic fluctuations (paramagnons) injected through the interface.« less

Novel voltage signal at proximity-induced superconducting transition temperature in gold nanowires

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Jian; Tang, JunXiong; Wang, ZiQiao; Sun, Yi; Sun, QingFeng; Chan, Moses H. W.

2018-08-01

We observed a novel voltage peak in the proximity-induced superconducting gold (Au) nanowire while cooling the sample through the superconducting transition temperature. The voltage peak turned dip during warming. The voltage peak or dip was found to originate respectively from the emergence or vanishing of the proximity-induced superconductivity in the Au nanowire. The amplitude of the voltage signal depends on the temperature scanning rate, and it cannot be detected when the temperature is changed slower than 0.03 K/min. This transient feature suggests the non-equilibrium property of the effect. Ginzburg-Landau model clarified the voltage peak by considering the emergence of Cooper pairs of relatively lower free energy in superconducting W contact and the non-equilibrium diffusion of Cooper pairs and quasiparticles.

Spin quenching assisted by a strongly anisotropic compression behavior in MnP

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Han, Fei; Wang, Di; Wang, Yonggang; Li, Nana; Bao, Jin-Ke; Li, Bing; Botana, Antia S.; Xiao, Yuming; Chow, Paul; Chung, Duck Young; Chen, Jiuhua; Wan, Xiangang; Kanatzidis, Mercouri G.; Yang, Wenge; Mao, Ho-Kwang

2018-02-01

We studied the crystal structure and spin state of MnP under high pressure with synchrotron x-ray diffraction and x-ray emission spectroscopy (XES). MnP has an exceedingly strong anisotropy in compressibility, with the primary compressible direction along the b axis of the Pnma structure. XES reveals a pressure-driven quenching of the spin state in MnP. First-principles calculations suggest that the strongly anisotropic compression behavior significantly enhances the dispersion of the Mn d-orbitals and the splitting of the d-orbital levels compared to the hypothetical isotropic compression behavior. Thus, we propose spin quenching results mainly from the significant enhancement of the itinerancy of d electrons and partly from spin rearrangement occurring in the split d-orbital levels near the Fermi level. This explains the fast suppression of magnetic ordering in MnP under high pressure. The spin quenching lags behind the occurrence of superconductivity at ˜8 GPa implying that spin fluctuations govern the electron pairing for superconductivity.

Spin quenching assisted by a strongly anisotropic compression behavior in MnP

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Han, Fei; Wang, Di; Wang, Yonggang

We studied the crystal structure and spin state of MnP under high pressure with synchrotron X-ray diffraction and X-ray emission spectroscopy. MnP has an exceedingly strong anisotropy in compressibility, with the primary compressible direction along the b axis of the Pnma structure. X-ray emission spectroscopy reveals a pressure-driven quenching of the spin state in MnP. First-principles calculations suggest that the strongly anisotropic compression behavior significantly enhances the dispersion of the Mn d-orbitals and the splitting of the d-orbital levels compared to the hypothetical isotropic compression behavior. Thus, we propose spin quenching results mainly from the significant enhancement of the itinerancymore » of d electrons and partly from spin rearrangement occurring in the split d-orbital levels near the Fermi level. This explains the fast suppression of magnetic ordering in MnP under high pressure. The spin quenching lags behind the occurrence of superconductivity at ~8 GPa implying that spin fluctuations govern the electron pairing for superconductivity.« less

Decompression-Driven Superconductivity Enhancement in In2 Se3.

PubMed

Ke, Feng; Dong, Haini; Chen, Yabin; Zhang, Jianbo; Liu, Cailong; Zhang, Junkai; Gan, Yuan; Han, Yonghao; Chen, Zhiqiang; Gao, Chunxiao; Wen, Jinsheng; Yang, Wenge; Chen, Xiao-Jia; Struzhkin, Viktor V; Mao, Ho-Kwang; Chen, Bin

2017-09-01

An unexpected superconductivity enhancement is reported in decompressed In 2 Se 3 . The onset of superconductivity in In 2 Se 3 occurs at 41.3 GPa with a critical temperature (T c ) of 3.7 K, peaking at 47.1 GPa. The striking observation shows that this layered chalcogenide remains superconducting in decompression down to 10.7 GPa. More surprisingly, the highest T c that occurs at lower decompression pressures is 8.2 K, a twofold increase in the same crystal structure as in compression. It is found that the evolution of T c is driven by the pressure-induced R-3m to I-43d structural transition and significant softening of phonons and gentle variation of carrier concentration combined in the pressure quench. The novel decompression-induced superconductivity enhancement implies that it is possible to maintain pressure-induced superconductivity at lower or even ambient pressures with better superconducting performance. © 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Recent Topics of Organic Superconductors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ardavan, Arzhang; Brown, Stuart; Kagoshima, Seiichi; Kanoda, Kazushi; Kuroki, Kazuhiko; Mori, Hatsumi; Ogata, Masao; Uji, Shinya; Wosnitza, Jochen

2012-01-01

Recent developments in research into superconductivity in organic materials are reviewed. In the epoch-defining quasi-one-dimensional TMTSF superconductors with Tc ˜ 1 K, Tc decreases monotonically with increasing pressure, as do signatures of spin fluctuations in the normal state, providing good evidence for magnetically-mediated pairing. Upper critical fields exceed the Zeeman-limiting field by several times, suggesting triplet pairing or a transition to an inhomogeneous superconducting state at high magnetic fields, while triplet pairing is ruled out at low fields by NMR Knight-shift measurements. Evidence for a spatially inhomogeneous superconducting state, Fulde--Ferrel--Larkin--Ovchinnikov state, which has long been sought in various superconducting systems, is now captured by thermodynamic and transport measurements for clean and highly two-dimensional BEDT-TTF and BETS superconductors. Some of the layered superconductors also serve as model systems for Mott physics on anisotropic triangular lattice. For example, the Nernst effect and the pseudo-gap behavior in NMR relaxation are enhanced near to the Mott transition. In the case of increasing spin frustration, the superconducting transition temperature is depressed, and antiferromagnetic ordering is eliminated altogether in the adjacent Mott insulating phase. There is an increasing number of materials exhibiting superconductivity in competition or cooperation with charge order. Theoretical studies shed light on the role of spin and/or charge fluctuations for superconductivity appearing under conditions close to those of correlation-induced insulating phases in the diversity of organic materials.

Evidence for phononic pairing in extremely overdoped ``pure'' d-wave superconductor Bi2212

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

He, Yu; Hishimoto, Makoto; Song, Dongjoon; Eisaki, Hiroshi; Shen, Zhi-Xun

2015-03-01

Recent advancement in High Tc cuprate superconductor research has elucidated strong interaction between superconductivity and competing orders. Therefore, the mechanism behind the 'pure' d-wave superconducting behavior becomes the next stepping stone to further the understanding. We have performed photoemission study on extremely overdoped Bi2212 single crystal synthesized via high pressure method. In this regime, we demonstrate the much reduced superconducting gap and the absence of pseudogap. Clear gap shifted bosonic mode coupling is observed throughout the entire Brillouin zone. Via full Eliashberg treatment, we find the electron-phonon coupling strength capable of producing a transition temperature very close to Tc. This strongly implies bosonic contribution to cuprate superconductivity's pairing glue.

Emergent superconductivity in an iron-based honeycomb lattice initiated by pressure-driven spin-crossover.

PubMed

Wang, Yonggang; Ying, Jianjun; Zhou, Zhengyang; Sun, Junliang; Wen, Ting; Zhou, Yannan; Li, Nana; Zhang, Qian; Han, Fei; Xiao, Yuming; Chow, Paul; Yang, Wenge; Struzhkin, Viktor V; Zhao, Yusheng; Mao, Ho-Kwang

2018-05-15

The discovery of iron-based superconductors (FeSCs), with the highest transition temperature (T c ) up to 55 K, has attracted worldwide research efforts over the past ten years. So far, all these FeSCs structurally adopt FeSe-type layers with a square iron lattice and superconductivity can be generated by either chemical doping or external pressure. Herein, we report the observation of superconductivity in an iron-based honeycomb lattice via pressure-driven spin-crossover. Under compression, the layered FePX 3 (X = S, Se) simultaneously undergo large in-plane lattice collapses, abrupt spin-crossovers, and insulator-metal transitions. Superconductivity emerges in FePSe 3 along with the structural transition and vanishing of magnetic moment with a starting T c  ~ 2.5 K at 9.0 GPa and the maximum T c  ~ 5.5 K around 30 GPa. The discovery of superconductivity in iron-based honeycomb lattice provides a demonstration for the pursuit of transition-metal-based superconductors via pressure-driven spin-crossover.

Strong temperature effect on the sizes of the Cooper pairs in a two-band superconductor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Örd, Teet; Rägo, Küllike; Vargunin, Artjom; Litak, Grzegorz

2018-01-01

We study the temperature dependencies of the mean sizes of the Cooper pairs in a two-band BCS-type s-wave superconductivity model with coupling cut-off in the momentum space. It is found that, in contrast to single-band systems, the size of Cooper pairs in the weaker superconductivity band can significantly decrease with a temperature increase due to an interband proximity effect. The relevant spatial behaviour of the wave functions of the Cooper pairs is analyzed. The results also indicate a possibility that the size of Cooper pairs in two-band systems may increase with an increase in temperature.

Cooperative Search of Autonomous Vehicles for Unknown Targets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Sheng Qing; Yu, Jian Qiao; Zhang, Si Yu

2013-01-01

We study the orbital-dependent superconducting pairing in a five-orbital t-J1-J2 model for iron pnictides. Depending on the orbital selectivity of electron correlations and the orbital characters along the Fermi surface, the superconducting gap in an A_{1g} pairing state may exhibit anisotropy. This anisotropy varies with the degree of J1-J2 magnetic frustration. We have also calculated the dynamical spin susceptibility in the superconducting state. The frequency dependence of the susceptibility at the antiferromagnetic wavevector (\\pi,0) shows a resonance, whose width is enhanced by the orbital dependence of the superconducting gap; when the latter is sufficiently strong, the resonance peak may be split into two. We discuss the implications of our results on the recent angle-resolved photoemission and neutron-scattering measurements in several superconducting iron pnictides.

The road to superconducting spintronics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eschrig, Matthias

Energy efficient computing has become a major challenge, with the increasing importance of large data centres across the world, which already today have a power consumption comparable to that of Spain, with steeply increasing trend. Superconducting computing is progressively becoming an alternative for large-scale applications, with the costs for cooling being largely outweighed by the gain in energy efficiency. The combination of superconductivity and spintronics - ``superspintronics'' - has the potential and flexibility to develop into such a green technology. This young field is based on the observation that new phenomena emerge at interfaces between superconducting and other, competing, phases. The past 15 years have seen a series of pivotal predictions and experimental discoveries relating to the interplay between superconductivity and ferromagnetism. The building blocks of superspintronics are equal-spin Cooper pairs, which are generated at the interface between superconducting and a ferromagnetic materials in the presence of non-collinear magnetism. Such novel, spin-polarised Cooper pairs carry spin-supercurrents in ferromagnets and thus contribute to spin-transport and spin-control. Geometric Berry phases appear during the singlet-triplet conversion process in structures with non-coplanar magnetisation, enhancing functionality of devices, and non-locality introduced by superconducting order leads to long-range effects. With the successful generation and control of equal-spin Cooper pairs the hitherto notorious incompatibility of superconductivity and ferromagnetism has been not only overcome, but turned synergistic. I will discuss these developments and their extraordinary potential. I also will present open questions posed by recent experiments and point out implications for theory. This work is supported by the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC Grant No. EP/J010618/1).

Exotic superconductivity with enhanced energy scales in materials with three band crossings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lin, Yu-Ping; Nandkishore, Rahul M.

2018-04-01

Three band crossings can arise in three-dimensional quantum materials with certain space group symmetries. The low energy Hamiltonian supports spin one fermions and a flat band. We study the pairing problem in this setting. We write down a minimal BCS Hamiltonian and decompose it into spin-orbit coupled irreducible pairing channels. We then solve the resulting gap equations in channels with zero total angular momentum. We find that in the s-wave spin singlet channel (and also in an unusual d-wave `spin quintet' channel), superconductivity is enormously enhanced, with a possibility for the critical temperature to be linear in interaction strength. Meanwhile, in the p-wave spin triplet channel, the superconductivity exhibits features of conventional BCS theory due to the absence of flat band pairing. Three band crossings thus represent an exciting new platform for realizing exotic superconducting states with enhanced energy scales. We also discuss the effects of doping, nonzero temperature, and of retaining additional terms in the k .p expansion of the Hamiltonian.

Topological superconductivity in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides.

PubMed

Hsu, Yi-Ting; Vaezi, Abolhassan; Fischer, Mark H; Kim, Eun-Ah

2017-04-11

Theoretically, it has been known that breaking spin degeneracy and effectively realizing spinless fermions is a promising path to topological superconductors. Yet, topological superconductors are rare to date. Here we propose to realize spinless fermions by splitting the spin degeneracy in momentum space. Specifically, we identify monolayer hole-doped transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD)s as candidates for topological superconductors out of such momentum-space-split spinless fermions. Although electron-doped TMDs have recently been found superconducting, the observed superconductivity is unlikely topological because of the near spin degeneracy. Meanwhile, hole-doped TMDs with momentum-space-split spinless fermions remain unexplored. Employing a renormalization group analysis, we propose that the unusual spin-valley locking in hole-doped TMDs together with repulsive interactions selectively favours two topological superconducting states: interpocket paired state with Chern number 2 and intrapocket paired state with finite pair momentum. A confirmation of our predictions will open up possibilities for manipulating topological superconductors on the device-friendly platform of monolayer TMDs.

Continuous and reversible tuning of the disorder-driven superconductor–insulator transition in bilayer graphene

PubMed Central

Lee, Gil-Ho; Jeong, Dongchan; Park, Kee-Su; Meir, Yigal; Cha, Min-Chul; Lee, Hu-Jong

2015-01-01

The influence of static disorder on a quantum phase transition (QPT) is a fundamental issue in condensed matter physics. As a prototypical example of a disorder-tuned QPT, the superconductor–insulator transition (SIT) has been investigated intensively over the past three decades, but as yet without a general consensus on its nature. A key element is good control of disorder. Here, we present an experimental study of the SIT based on precise in-situ tuning of disorder in dual-gated bilayer graphene proximity-coupled to two superconducting electrodes through electrical and reversible control of the band gap and the charge carrier density. In the presence of a static disorder potential, Andreev-paired carriers formed close to the Fermi level in bilayer graphene constitute a randomly distributed network of proximity-induced superconducting puddles. The landscape of the network was easily tuned by electrical gating to induce percolative clusters at the onset of superconductivity. This is evidenced by scaling behavior consistent with the classical percolation in transport measurements. At lower temperatures, the solely electrical tuning of the disorder-induced landscape enables us to observe, for the first time, a crossover from classical to quantum percolation in a single device, which elucidates how thermal dephasing engages in separating the two regimes. PMID:26310774

Continuous and reversible tuning of the disorder-driven superconductor-insulator transition in bilayer graphene.

PubMed

Lee, Gil-Ho; Jeong, Dongchan; Park, Kee-Su; Meir, Yigal; Cha, Min-Chul; Lee, Hu-Jong

2015-08-27

The influence of static disorder on a quantum phase transition (QPT) is a fundamental issue in condensed matter physics. As a prototypical example of a disorder-tuned QPT, the superconductor-insulator transition (SIT) has been investigated intensively over the past three decades, but as yet without a general consensus on its nature. A key element is good control of disorder. Here, we present an experimental study of the SIT based on precise in-situ tuning of disorder in dual-gated bilayer graphene proximity-coupled to two superconducting electrodes through electrical and reversible control of the band gap and the charge carrier density. In the presence of a static disorder potential, Andreev-paired carriers formed close to the Fermi level in bilayer graphene constitute a randomly distributed network of proximity-induced superconducting puddles. The landscape of the network was easily tuned by electrical gating to induce percolative clusters at the onset of superconductivity. This is evidenced by scaling behavior consistent with the classical percolation in transport measurements. At lower temperatures, the solely electrical tuning of the disorder-induced landscape enables us to observe, for the first time, a crossover from classical to quantum percolation in a single device, which elucidates how thermal dephasing engages in separating the two regimes.

Superconductivity pairing mechanism from cobalt impurity doping in FeSe: Spin (s±) or orbital (s++) fluctuation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Urata, T.; Tanabe, Y.; Huynh, K. K.; Yamakawa, Y.; Kontani, H.; Tanigaki, K.

2016-01-01

In high-superconducting transition temperature (Tc) iron-based superconductors, interband sign reversal (s±) and sign preserving (s++) s -wave superconducting states have been primarily discussed as the plausible superconducting mechanism. We study Co impurity scattering effects on the superconductivity in order to achieve an important clue on the pairing mechanism using single-crystal Fe1 -xCoxSe and depict a phase diagram of a FeSe system. Both superconductivity and structural transition/orbital order are suppressed by the Co replacement on the Fe sites and disappear above x = 0.036. These correlated suppressions represent a common background physics behind these physical phenomena in the multiband Fermi surfaces of FeSe. By comparing experimental data and theories so far proposed, the suppression of Tc against the residual resistivity is shown to be much weaker than that predicted in the case of general sign reversal and full gap s± models. The origin of the superconducting paring in FeSe is discussed in terms of its multiband electronic structure.

Time-reversal symmetry-breaking superconductivity in epitaxial bismuth/nickel bilayers.

PubMed

Gong, Xinxin; Kargarian, Mehdi; Stern, Alex; Yue, Di; Zhou, Hexin; Jin, Xiaofeng; Galitski, Victor M; Yakovenko, Victor M; Xia, Jing

2017-03-01

Superconductivity that spontaneously breaks time-reversal symmetry (TRS) has been found, so far, only in a handful of three-dimensional (3D) crystals with bulk inversion symmetry. We report an observation of spontaneous TRS breaking in a 2D superconducting system without inversion symmetry: the epitaxial bilayer films of bismuth and nickel. The evidence comes from the onset of the polar Kerr effect at the superconducting transition in the absence of an external magnetic field, detected by the ultrasensitive loop-less fiber-optic Sagnac interferometer. Because of strong spin-orbit interaction and lack of inversion symmetry in a Bi/Ni bilayer, superconducting pairing cannot be classified as singlet or triplet. We propose a theoretical model where magnetic fluctuations in Ni induce the superconducting pairing of the [Formula: see text] orbital symmetry between the electrons in Bi. In this model, the order parameter spontaneously breaks the TRS and has a nonzero phase winding number around the Fermi surface, thus making it a rare example of a 2D topological superconductor.

Superconductivity and hybrid soft modes in Ti Se 2

DOE PAGES

Maschek, M.; Rosenkranz, S.; Hott, R.; ...

2016-12-12

The interplay between superconductivity and charge-density-wave (CDW) order plays a central role in the layered transition-metal dichalcogenides. 1 T-TiSe 2 forms a prime example, featuring superconducting domes on intercalation as well as under applied pressure. Here, we present high energy-resolution inelastic x-ray scattering measurements of the CDW soft phonon mode in intercalated Cu xTiSe 2 and pressurized 1 T-TiSe 2 along with detailed ab-initio calculations for the lattice dynamical properties and phonon-mediated superconductivity. We find that the intercalation-induced superconductivity can be explained by a solely phonon-mediated pairing mechanism, while this is not possible for the superconducting phase under pressure. Wemore » argue that a hybridization of phonon and exciton modes in the pairing mechanism is necessary to explain the full observed temperature-pressure-intercalation phase diagram. Finally, these results indicate that 1 T-TiSe 2 under pressure is close to the elusive state of the excitonic insulator.« less

Superconducting parity effect across the Anderson limit

PubMed Central

Vlaic, Sergio; Pons, Stéphane; Zhang, Tianzhen; Assouline, Alexandre; Zimmers, Alexandre; David, Christophe; Rodary, Guillemin; Girard, Jean-Christophe; Roditchev, Dimitri; Aubin, Hervé

2017-01-01

How small can superconductors be? For isolated nanoparticles subject to quantum size effects, P.W. Anderson in 1959 conjectured that superconductivity could only exist when the electronic level spacing δ is smaller than the superconducting gap energy Δ. Here we report a scanning tunnelling spectroscopy study of superconducting lead (Pb) nanocrystals grown on the (110) surface of InAs. We find that for nanocrystals of lateral size smaller than the Fermi wavelength of the 2D electron gas at the surface of InAs, the electronic transmission of the interface is weak; this leads to Coulomb blockade and enables the extraction of electron addition energy of the nanocrystals. For large nanocrystals, the addition energy displays superconducting parity effect, a direct consequence of Cooper pairing. Studying this parity effect as a function of nanocrystal volume, we find the suppression of Cooper pairing when the mean electronic level spacing overcomes the superconducting gap energy, thus demonstrating unambiguously the validity of the Anderson criterion. PMID:28240294

Gap Symmetry of the Heavy Fermion Superconductor CeCu2Si2 at Ambient Pressure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Yu; Liu, Min; Fu, Zhaoming; Chen, Xiangrong; Yang, Fan; Yang, Yi-feng

2018-05-01

Recent observations of two nodeless gaps in superconducting CeCu2 Si2 have raised intensive debates on its exact gap symmetry, while a satisfactory theoretical basis is still lacking. Here we propose a phenomenological approach to calculate the superconducting gap functions, taking into consideration both the realistic Fermi surface topology and the intra- and interband quantum critical scatterings. Our calculations yield a nodeless s±-wave solution in the presence of strong interband pairing interaction, in good agreement with experiments. This provides a possible basis for understanding the superconducting gap symmetry of CeCu2 Si2 at ambient pressure and indicates the potential importance of multiple Fermi surfaces and interband pairing interaction in understanding heavy fermion superconductivity.

Development of a compact superconducting rotating-gantry for heavy-ion therapy

PubMed Central

Iwata, Yoshiyuki; Noda, K.; Murakami, T.; Shirai, T.; Furukawa, T.; Fujita, T.; Mori, S.; Sato, S.; Mizushima, K.; Shouda, K.; Fujimoto, T.; Arai, H.; Ogitsu, T.; Obana, T.; Amemiya, N.; Orikasa, T.; Takami, S.; Takayama, S.

2014-01-01

An isocentric superconducting rotating-gantry for heavy-ion therapy is being developed [ 1]. This rotating gantry can transport heavy ions having 430 MeV/u to an isocenter with irradiation angles of over ±180°, and is further capable of performing fast raster-scanning irradiation [ 2]. A layout of the beam-transport line for the compact rotating-gantry is presented in Fig. 1. The rotating gantry has 10 superconducting magnets (BM01-10), a pair of the scanning magnets (SCM-X and SCM-Y) and two pairs of beam profile- monitor and steering magnets (ST01-02 and PRN01-02). For BM01-BM06 and BM09-BM10, the combined-function superconducting magnets are employed. Further, these superconducting magnets are designed for fast slewing of the magnetic field to follow the multiple flattop operation of the synchrotron [ 3]. The use of the combined-function superconducting magnets with optimized beam optics allows a compact gantry design with a large scan size at the isocenter; the length and the radius of the gantry will be to be ∼13 and 5.5 m, respectively, which are comparable to those for the existing proton gantries. Furthermore, the maximum scan size at the isocenter is calculated to be as large as ∼200 mm square for heavy-ion beams at the maximum energy of 430 MeV/u. All of the superconducting magnets were designed, and their magnetic fields were calculated using the Opera-3d code [ 4]. With the calculated magnetic fields, beam-tracking simulations were made. The simulation results agreed well with those of the linear beam-optics calculation, proving validity of the final design for the superconducting magnets. The five out of 10 superconducting magnets, as well as the model magnet were currently manufactured. With these magnets, rotation tests, magnetic field measurements and fast slewing tests were conducted. However, we did not observe any significant temperature increase, which may cause a quench problem. Further, results of the magnetic field measurements roughly agreed with those calculated by the Opera-3d code. The design study as well as major tests of the superconducting magnets was completed, and the construction of the superconducting rotating-gantry is in progress. The construction of the superconducting rotating-gantry will be completed at the end of FY2014, and be commissioned within FY2015. Fig. 1.Layout of the superconducting rotating-gantry. The gantry consists of 10 superconducting magnets (BM01–BM10), a pair of the scanning magnets (SCM-X and SCMY), and two pairs of beam profile-monitor and steering magnets (STR01–STR02 and PRN01–PRN02).

Disorder-induced inhomogeneities of the superconducting state close to the superconductor-insulator transition.

PubMed

Sacépé, B; Chapelier, C; Baturina, T I; Vinokur, V M; Baklanov, M R; Sanquer, M

2008-10-10

Scanning tunneling spectroscopy at very low temperatures on homogeneously disordered superconducting titanium nitride thin films reveals strong spatial inhomogeneities of the superconducting gap Delta in the density of states. Upon increasing disorder, we observe suppression of the superconducting critical temperature Tc towards zero, enhancement of spatial fluctuations in Delta, and growth of the Delta/Tc ratio. These findings suggest that local superconductivity survives across the disorder-driven superconductor-insulator transition.

Magnetic and superconducting phase diagrams of single-crystal Er0.8R0.2Ni2B2C (R=Tb,Lu) and ErNi1.9Co0.1B2C: Identification of pair-breaking mechanisms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Takeya, H.; El Massalami, M.

2004-01-01

We investigated the magnetism, superconductivity and their interplay in single crystals Er0.8R0.2Ni2B2C (R=Tb,Lu) and ErNi1.9Co0.1B2C. In contrast to Co substitution, R substitutions induce considerable modifications in the magnetism of Er sublattice: e.g., Tb (Lu) substitution enhances (reduces) TN and critical fields. Both R substitutions introduce size effects and pinning centers; the former modifies the magnon specific heat while the latter hinders the formation of a weak ferromagnetism. The superconductivity, on the other hand, is strongly (weakly) influenced by Tb and Co (Lu) substitution. Taking LuNi2B2C as a nonmagnetic superconducting limit, we analyzed their superconductivities, as well as that of ErNi2B2C, in terms of multiple pair breaking theory on dirty superconductors. Based on this analysis, many of their superconducting features can be explained: The breakdown of de Gennes scaling is due to the presence of multiple pair breakers, the anisotropy of Hc2(T) is related to the magnetic anisotropy, the absence of a structure in Hc2(T) at TN of Lu substitution (TN

Metallic quantum critical points with finite BCS couplings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Raghu, Srinivas

The problem of superconductivity near quantum critical points (QCPs) remains a central topic of modern condensed matter physics. In such systems, there is a competition between the enhanced pairing tendency due to the presence of long-range attractive interactions near criticality, and the suppression of superconductivity due to the destruction of Landau quasiparticles. I will describe some recent work that addresses these competing effects in the context of a solvable model of a metallic quantum critical point. I will show that the two effects - namely the enhanced pairing and the destruction of Landau quasiparticles - can offset one another, resulting in stable ''naked'' quantum critical points without superconductivity. However, the resulting quantum critical metal exhibits strong superconducting fluctuations on all length scales. Reference: S.R., Gonzalo Torroba, and Huajia Wang, arXiv1507.06652, PRB(2015).

Possibility of Cooper-pair formation controlled by multi-terminal spin injection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ohnishi, K.; Sakamoto, M.; Ishitaki, M.; Kimura, T.

2018-03-01

A multi-terminal lateral spin valve consisting of three ferromagnetic nanopillars on a Cu/Nb bilayer has been fabricated. We investigated the influence of the spin injection on the superconducting properties at the Cu/Nb interface. The non-local spin valve signal exhibits a clear spin insulation signature due to the superconducting gap of the Nb. The magnitude of the spin signal is found to show the probe configuration dependence. From the careful analysis of the bias current dependence, we found the suppression of the superconductivity due to the exchange interaction between the Cooper pair and accumulated spin plays an important role in the multi-terminal spin injections. We also discuss about the possibility of the Cooper-pair formation due to the spin injection from the two injectors with the anti-parallel alignment.

Beyond triplet: Unconventional superconductivity in a spin-3/2 topological semimetal

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kim, Hyunsoo; Wang, Kefeng; Nakajima, Yasuyuki

In all known fermionic super fluids, Cooper pairs are composed of spin-1/2 quasi-particles that pair to form either spin-singlet or spin-triplet bound states. The "spin" of a Bloch electron, however, is xed by the symmetries of the crystal and the atomic orbitals from which it is derived, and in some cases can behave as if it were a spin-3/2 particle. The superconducting state of such a system allows pairing beyond spin-triplet, with higher spin quasi-particles combining to form quintet or even septet pairs. Here, we report evidence of unconventional superconductivity emerging from a spin-3/2 quasiparticle electronic structure in the half-Heuslermore » semimetal YPtBi, a low-carrier density noncentrosymmetric cubic material with a high symmetry that preserves the p-like j = 3/2 manifold in the Bi-based Γ 8 band in the presence of strong spin-orbit coupling. With a striking linear temperature dependence of the London penetration depth, the existence of line nodes in the superconducting order parameter Δ is directly explained by a mixed-parity Cooper pairing model with high total angular momentum, consistent with a high-spin fermionic super fluid state. We propose a k ∙ p model of the j = 3/2 fermions to explain how a dominant J=3 septet pairing state is the simplest solution that naturally produces nodes in the mixed even-odd parity gap. Together with the underlying topologically non-trivial band structure, the unconventional pairing in this system represents a truly novel form of super fluidity that has strong potential for leading the development of a new generation of topological superconductors.« less

Beyond triplet: Unconventional superconductivity in a spin-3/2 topological semimetal

DOE PAGES

Kim, Hyunsoo; Wang, Kefeng; Nakajima, Yasuyuki; ...

2018-04-06

In all known fermionic super fluids, Cooper pairs are composed of spin-1/2 quasi-particles that pair to form either spin-singlet or spin-triplet bound states. The "spin" of a Bloch electron, however, is xed by the symmetries of the crystal and the atomic orbitals from which it is derived, and in some cases can behave as if it were a spin-3/2 particle. The superconducting state of such a system allows pairing beyond spin-triplet, with higher spin quasi-particles combining to form quintet or even septet pairs. Here, we report evidence of unconventional superconductivity emerging from a spin-3/2 quasiparticle electronic structure in the half-Heuslermore » semimetal YPtBi, a low-carrier density noncentrosymmetric cubic material with a high symmetry that preserves the p-like j = 3/2 manifold in the Bi-based Γ 8 band in the presence of strong spin-orbit coupling. With a striking linear temperature dependence of the London penetration depth, the existence of line nodes in the superconducting order parameter Δ is directly explained by a mixed-parity Cooper pairing model with high total angular momentum, consistent with a high-spin fermionic super fluid state. We propose a k ∙ p model of the j = 3/2 fermions to explain how a dominant J=3 septet pairing state is the simplest solution that naturally produces nodes in the mixed even-odd parity gap. Together with the underlying topologically non-trivial band structure, the unconventional pairing in this system represents a truly novel form of super fluidity that has strong potential for leading the development of a new generation of topological superconductors.« less

Hole pairing and ground state properties of high-Tc superconductivity within the t-t'-J-V model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Roy, Krishanu; Pal, Papiya; Nath, Subhadip; Ghosh, Nanda Kumar

2018-04-01

The t-t'-J-V model, one of the realistic models for studying high-Tc cuprates, has been investigated to explore the hole pairing and other ground state properties using exact diagonalization (ED) technique with 2 holes in a small 8-site cluster. The role of next-nearest-neighbor (NNN) hopping and nearest-neighbor (NN) Coulomb repulsion has been considered. It appears that qualitative behavior of the ground state energies of an 8-site and 16- or 18-site cluster is similar. Results show that a small short-ranged antiferromagnetic (AF) correlation exists in the 2 hole case which is favored by large V/t. A superconducting phase emerges at 0 ≤ V/t ≤ 4J. Hole-hole correlation calculation also suggests that the two holes of the pair are either at |i - j| = 1 or √2. Negative t'/t suppresses the possibility of pairing of holes. Though s-wave pairing susceptibility is dominant, pairing correlation length calculation indicates that the long range pairing, which is suitable for superconductivity, is in the d-wave channel. Both s- and d-wave pairing susceptibility gets suppressed by V/t while d-(s-) wave susceptibility gets favored (suppressed) by t'/t. The charge gap shows a gapped behavior while a spin-gapless region exists at small V/t for finite t'/t.

Role of vertex corrections in the matrix formulation of the random phase approximation for the multiorbital Hubbard model

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Altmeyer, Michaela; Guterding, Daniel; Hirschfeld, P. J.

2016-12-21

In the framework of a multiorbital Hubbard model description of superconductivity, a matrix formulation of the superconducting pairing interaction that has been widely used is designed to treat spin, charge, and orbital fluctuations within a random phase approximation (RPA). In terms of Feynman diagrams, this takes into account particle-hole ladder and bubble contributions as expected. It turns out, however, that this matrix formulation also generates additional terms which have the diagrammatic structure of vertex corrections. Furthermore we examine these terms and discuss the relationship between the matrix-RPA superconducting pairing interaction and the Feynman diagrams that it sums.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Li, Yufeng; Zhou, Yonghui; Guo, Zhaopeng

Weyl semimetal defines a material with three-dimensional Dirac cones, which appear in pair due to the breaking of spatial inversion or time reversal symmetry. Superconductivity is the state of quantum condensation of paired electrons. Turning a Weyl semimetal into superconducting state is very important in having some unprecedented discoveries. In this work, by doing resistive measurements on a recently recognized Weyl semimetal TaP under pressures up to about 100 GPa, we show the concurrence of superconductivity and a structure transition at about 70 GPa. It is found that the superconductivity becomes more pronounced when decreasing pressure and retains when themore » pressure is completely released. High-pressure x-ray diffraction measurements also confirm the structure phase transition from I41md to P-6m2 at about 70 GPa. More importantly, ab-initial calculations reveal that the P-6m2 phase is a new Weyl semimetal phase and has only one set of Weyl points at the same energy level. Our discovery of superconductivity in TaP by high pressure will stimulate investigations on superconductivity and Majorana fermions in Weyl semimetals.« less

Time-reversal symmetry-breaking superconductivity in epitaxial bismuth/nickel bilayers

DOE PAGES

Gong, Xinxin; Kargarian, Mehdi; Stern, Alex; ...

2017-03-31

Superconductivity that spontaneously breaks time-reversal symmetry (TRS) has been found, so far, only in a handful of three-dimensional (3D) crystals with bulk inversion symmetry. We report an observation of spontaneous TRS breaking in a 2D superconducting system without inversion symmetry: the epitaxial bilayer films of bismuth and nickel. The evidence comes from the onset of the polar Kerr effect at the superconducting transition in the absence of an external magnetic field, detected by the ultrasensitive loop-less fiber-optic Sagnac interferometer. Because of strong spin-orbit interaction and lack of inversion symmetry in a Bi/Ni bilayer, superconducting pairing cannot be classified as singletmore » or triplet.We propose a theoretical model where magnetic fluctuations in Ni induce the superconducting pairing of the d xy ± id x2-y2 orbital symmetry between the electrons in Bi. In this model, the order parameter spontaneously breaks the TRS and has a nonzero phase winding number around the Fermi surface, thus making it a rare example of a 2D topological superconductor.« less

Proximity-induced superconductivity in crystalline Cu and Co nanowires and nanogranular Co structures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kompaniiets, M.; Dobrovolskiy, O. V.; Neetzel, C.; Begun, E.; Porrati, F.; Ensinger, W.; Huth, M.

2014-08-01

We report an experimental study of proximity effect-induced superconductivity in crystalline Cu and Co nanowires and a nanogranular Co nanowire structure in contact with a superconducting W-based floating electrode (inducer). For electrical resistance measurements up to three pairs of Pt-based voltage leads were attached at different distances beside the inner inducer electrode, thus allowing us to probe the proximity effect over a length of 2-12 μm. Up to 30% resistance drops with respect to the normal-state value have been observed for the crystalline Co and Cu nanowires when sweeping the temperature below Tc of the inducer (5.2 K). By contrast, relative R(T) drops were found to be an order of magnitude smaller for the nanogranular Co nanowire structure. Our analysis of the resistance data shows that the superconducting proximity length in crystalline Cu and Co is about 1 μm at 2.4 K, attesting to a long-range proximity effect in the Co nanowire. Moreover, this long-range proximity effect is insusceptible to magnetic fields up to 11 T, which is indicative of spin-triplet pairing. At the same time, proximity-induced superconductivity in the nanogranular Co nanowire is strongly suppressed due to the dominating Cooper pair scattering caused by its intrinsic microstructure.

Probe-type of superconductivity by impurity in materials with short coherence length: the s-wave and η-wave phases study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ptok, Andrzej; Jerzy Kapcia, Konrad

2015-04-01

The effects of a single non-magnetic impurity on superconducting states in the Penson-Kolb-Hubbard model have been analyzed. The investigations have been performed within the Hartree-Fock mean field approximation in two steps: (i) the homogeneous system is analysed using the Bogoliubov transformation, whereas (ii) the inhomogeneous system is investigated by self-consistent Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations (with the exact diagonalization and the kernel polynomial method). We analysed both signs of the pair hopping, which correspond to s-wave and η-wave superconductivity. Our results show that an enhancement of the local superconducting gap at the impurity-site occurs for both cases. We obtained that Cooper pairs are scattered (at the impurity site) into the states which are from the neighborhoods of the states, which are commensurate ones with the crystal lattice. Additionally, in the η-phase there are peaks in the local-energy gap (in momentum space), which are connected with long-range oscillations in the spatial distribution of the energy gap, superconducting order parameter (SOP), as well as effective pairing potential. Our results can be contrasted with the experiment and predicts how to experimentally differentiate these two different symmetries of SOP by the scanning tunneling microscopy technique.

Fidelity study of the superconducting phase diagram in the two-dimensional single-band Hubbard model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jia, C. J.; Moritz, B.; Chen, C.-C.; Shastry, B. Sriram; Devereaux, T. P.

2011-09-01

Extensive numerical studies have demonstrated that the two-dimensional single-band Hubbard model contains much of the key physics in cuprate high-temperature superconductors. However, there is no definitive proof that the Hubbard model truly possesses a superconducting ground state or, if it does, of how it depends on model parameters. To answer these longstanding questions, we study an extension of the Hubbard model including an infinite-range d-wave pair field term, which precipitates a superconducting state in the d-wave channel. Using exact diagonalization on 16-site square clusters, we study the evolution of the ground state as a function of the strength of the pairing term. This is achieved by monitoring the fidelity metric of the ground state, as well as determining the ratio between the two largest eigenvalues of the d-wave pair/spin/charge-density matrices. The calculations show a d-wave superconducting ground state in doped clusters bracketed by a strong antiferromagnetic state at half filling controlled by the Coulomb repulsion U and a weak short-range checkerboard charge ordered state at larger hole doping controlled by the next-nearest-neighbor hopping t'. We also demonstrate that negative t' plays an important role in facilitating d-wave superconductivity.

Effect of disorder on the pressure-induced superconducting state of CeAu 2Si 2

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ren, Z.; Giriat, G.; Scheerer, G. W.; Lapertot, G.; Jaccard, D.

2015-03-01

CeAu2Si2 is a newly discovered pressure-induced heavy fermion superconductor, which shows very unusual interplay between superconductivity and magnetism under pressure. Here we compare the results of high-pressure measurements on single-crystalline CeAu2Si2 samples with different levels of disorder. It is found that while the magnetic properties are essentially sample independent, superconductivity is rapidly suppressed when the residual resistivity of the sample increases. We show that the depression of bulk Tc can be well understood in terms of pair breaking by nonmagnetic disorder, which strongly suggests an unconventional pairing state in pressurized CeAu2Si2 . Furthermore, increasing the level of disorder leads to the emergence of another phase transition at T* within the magnetic phase, which might be in competition with superconductivity.

Supercurrent as a probe for topological superconductivity in magnetic adatom chains

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mohanta, Narayan; Kampf, Arno P.; Kopp, Thilo

2018-06-01

A magnetic adatom chain, proximity coupled to a conventional superconductor with spin-orbit coupling, exhibits locally an odd-parity, spin-triplet pairing amplitude. We show that the singlet-triplet junction, thus formed, leads to a net spin accumulation in the near vicinity of the chain. The accumulated spins are polarized along the direction of the local d vector for triplet pairing and generate an enhanced persistent current flowing around the chain. The spin polarization and the "supercurrent" reverse their directions beyond a critical exchange coupling strength at which the singlet superconducting order changes its sign on the chain. The current is strongly enhanced in the topological superconducting regime where Majorana bound states appear at the chain ends. The current and the spin profile offer alternative routes to characterize the topological superconducting state in adatom chains and islands.

Absence of Local Fluctuating Dimers in Superconducting Ir 1-x(Pt,Rh) xTe 2

DOE PAGES

Yu, Runze; Banerjee, S.; Lei, H. C.; ...

2018-06-01

The compound IrTe2 is known to exhibit a transition to a modulated state featuring Ir-Ir dimers, with large associated atomic displacements. Partial substitution of Pt or Rh for Ir destabilizes the modulated structure and induces superconductivity. It has been proposed that quantum critical dimer fluctuations might be associated with the superconductivity. Here we test for such local dimer correlations and demonstrate their absence. X-ray pair distribution function approach reveals that the local structure of Ir 0.95Pt 0.05Te 2 and Ir 0.8Rh 0.2Te 2 dichalcogenide superconductors with compositions just past the dimer/superconductor boundary is explained well by a dimer-free model downmore » to 10 K, ruling out the possibility of there being nanoscale dimer fluctuations in this regime. This is inconsistent with the proposed quantum-critical-point-like interplay of the dimer state and superconductivity, and precludes scenarios for dimer fluctuations mediated superconducting pairing.« less

Absence of Local Fluctuating Dimers in Superconducting Ir 1-x(Pt,Rh) xTe 2

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Yu, Runze; Banerjee, S.; Lei, H. C.

The compound IrTe2 is known to exhibit a transition to a modulated state featuring Ir-Ir dimers, with large associated atomic displacements. Partial substitution of Pt or Rh for Ir destabilizes the modulated structure and induces superconductivity. It has been proposed that quantum critical dimer fluctuations might be associated with the superconductivity. Here we test for such local dimer correlations and demonstrate their absence. X-ray pair distribution function approach reveals that the local structure of Ir 0.95Pt 0.05Te 2 and Ir 0.8Rh 0.2Te 2 dichalcogenide superconductors with compositions just past the dimer/superconductor boundary is explained well by a dimer-free model downmore » to 10 K, ruling out the possibility of there being nanoscale dimer fluctuations in this regime. This is inconsistent with the proposed quantum-critical-point-like interplay of the dimer state and superconductivity, and precludes scenarios for dimer fluctuations mediated superconducting pairing.« less

Absence of local fluctuating dimers in superconducting Ir1 -x(Pt,Rh ) xTe2

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, Runze; Banerjee, S.; Lei, H. C.; Sinclair, Ryan; Abeykoon, M.; Zhou, H. D.; Petrovic, C.; Guguchia, Z.; Bozin, E. S.

2018-05-01

The compound IrTe2 is known to exhibit a transition to a modulated state featuring Ir-Ir dimers, with large associated atomic displacements. Partial substitution of Pt or Rh for Ir destabilizes the modulated structure and induces superconductivity. It has been proposed that quantum critical dimer fluctuations might be associated with the superconductivity. Here we test for such local dimer correlations and demonstrate their absence. X-ray pair distribution function approach reveals that the local structure of Ir0 :95Pt0 :05Te2 and Ir0 :8Rh0 :2Te2 dichalcogenide superconductors with compositions just past the dimer/superconductor boundary is explained well by a dimer-free model down to 10 K, ruling out the possibility of there being nanoscale dimer fluctuations in this regime. This is inconsistent with the proposed quantum-critical-point-like interplay of the dimer state and superconductivity, and precludes scenarios for dimer fluctuations mediated superconducting pairing.

Multiple topological electronic phases in superconductor MoC

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Angus; Smith, Adam D.; Schwinn, Madison; Lu, Qiangsheng; Chang, Tay-Rong; Xie, Weiwei; Jeng, Horng-Tay; Bian, Guang

2018-05-01

The search for a superconductor with non-s -wave pairing is important not only for understanding unconventional mechanisms of superconductivity but also for finding new types of quasiparticles such as Majorana bound states. Materials with both topological band structure and superconductivity are promising candidates as p +i p superconducting states can be generated through pairing the spin-polarized topological surface states. In this work, the electronic and phonon properties of the superconductor molybdenum carbide (MoC) are studied with first-principles methods. Our calculations show that nontrivial band topology and s -wave Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer superconductivity coexist in two structural phases of MoC, namely the cubic α and hexagonal γ phases. The α phase is a strong topological insulator and the γ phase is a topological nodal-line semimetal with drumhead surface states. In addition, hole doping can stabilize the crystal structure of the α phase and elevate the transition temperature in the γ phase. Therefore, MoC in different structural forms can be a practical material platform for studying topological superconductivity.

d -wave superconductivity in the presence of nearest-neighbor Coulomb repulsion

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jiang, M.; Hahner, U. R.; Schulthess, T. C.

Dynamic cluster quantum Monte Carlo calculations for a doped two-dimensional extended Hubbard model are used to study the stability and dynamics of d-wave pairing when a nearest-neighbor Coulomb repulsion V is present in addition to the on-site Coulomb repulsion U. We find that d-wave pairing and the superconducting transition temperature Tc are only weakly suppressed as long as V does not exceed U/2. This stability is traced to the strongly retarded nature of pairing that allows the d-wave pairs to minimize the repulsive effect of V. When V approaches U/2, large momentum charge fluctuations are found to become important andmore » to give rise to a more rapid suppression of d-wave pairing and T c than for smaller V.« less

Robust d -wave pairing symmetry in multiorbital cobalt high-temperature superconductors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Yinxiang; Han, Xinloong; Qin, Shengshan; Le, Congcong; Wang, Qiang-Hua; Hu, Jiangping

2017-07-01

The pairing symmetry of the cobalt high-temperature (high-Tc) superconductors formed by vertex-shared cation-anion tetrahedral complexes is studied by the methods of mean-field, random phase approximation (RPA), and functional renormalization-group (FRG) analyses. The results of all of these methods show that the dx2-y2 pairing symmetry is robustly favored near half filling. The RPA and FRG methods, which are valid in weak-interaction regions, predict that the superconducting state is also strongly orbital selective, namely, the dx2-y2 orbital that has the largest density near half filling among the three t2 g orbitals dominates superconducting pairing. These results suggest that these materials, if synthesized, can provide an indisputable test of the high-Tc pairing mechanism and the validity of different theoretical methods.

Observation of multiple superconducting gaps in Fe1+y Se x Te 1-x through Andreev reflection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de, Debtanu; Diaz-Pinto, Carlos; Wu, Zheng; Hor, Pei-Herng; Peng, Haibing

2011-03-01

Iron-based superconductors have been under intensive study because of the high transition temperature and the intriguing physical mechanisms involving the superconductivity and magnetic orders. Theoretical studies on the role of spin fluctuation suggest unconventional S wave pairing and multiple superconducting (SC) gaps due to the five disjoint Fermi surfaces. However, this multiple SC-gap scenario has yet to be confirmed in experiments. Here we report the experimental observation of five SC gaps in Fe 1+y Se x Te 1-x from Andreev reflection spectra, along with negative differential conductance dips due to the pair breaking related to the largest SC gap. The evolution of the multiple SC gaps is further investigated as a function of both temperature and magnetic field. For the largest SC gap, the Andreev reflection signal persists above bulk Tc, suggesting the existence of phase incoherent Cooper pairs.

Resonant tunneling of fluctuation Cooper pairs

DOE PAGES

Galda, Alexey; Mel'nikov, A. S.; Vinokur, V. M.

2015-02-09

Superconducting fluctuations have proved to be an irreplaceable source of information about microscopic and macroscopic material parameters that could be inferred from the experiment. According to common wisdom, the effect of thermodynamic fluctuations in the vicinity of the superconducting transition temperature, T c, is to round off all of the sharp corners and discontinuities, which otherwise would have been expected to occur at T c. Here we report the current spikes due to radiation-induced resonant tunneling of fluctuation Cooper pairs between two superconductors which grow even sharper and more pronounced upon approach to T c. This striking effect offers anmore » unprecedented tool for direct measurements of fluctuation Cooper pair lifetime, which is key to our understanding of the fluctuation regime, most notably to nature of the pseudogap state in high-temperature superconductors. Lastly, our finding marks a radical departure from the conventional view of superconducting fluctuations as a blurring and rounding phenomenon.« less

Resonant tunneling of fluctuation Cooper pairs

PubMed Central

Galda, Alexey; Mel'nikov, A. S.; Vinokur, V. M.

2015-01-01

Superconducting fluctuations have proved to be an irreplaceable source of information about microscopic and macroscopic material parameters that could be inferred from the experiment. According to common wisdom, the effect of thermodynamic fluctuations in the vicinity of the superconducting transition temperature, Tc, is to round off all of the sharp corners and discontinuities, which otherwise would have been expected to occur at Tc. Here we report the current spikes due to radiation-induced resonant tunneling of fluctuation Cooper pairs between two superconductors which grow even sharper and more pronounced upon approach to Tc. This striking effect offers an unprecedented tool for direct measurements of fluctuation Cooper pair lifetime, which is key to our understanding of the fluctuation regime, most notably to nature of the pseudogap state in high-temperature superconductors. Our finding marks a radical departure from the conventional view of superconducting fluctuations as a blurring and rounding phenomenon. PMID:25661237

Resonant tunneling of fluctuation Cooper pairs.

PubMed

Galda, Alexey; Mel'nikov, A S; Vinokur, V M

2015-02-09

Superconducting fluctuations have proved to be an irreplaceable source of information about microscopic and macroscopic material parameters that could be inferred from the experiment. According to common wisdom, the effect of thermodynamic fluctuations in the vicinity of the superconducting transition temperature, Tc, is to round off all of the sharp corners and discontinuities, which otherwise would have been expected to occur at Tc. Here we report the current spikes due to radiation-induced resonant tunneling of fluctuation Cooper pairs between two superconductors which grow even sharper and more pronounced upon approach to Tc. This striking effect offers an unprecedented tool for direct measurements of fluctuation Cooper pair lifetime, which is key to our understanding of the fluctuation regime, most notably to nature of the pseudogap state in high-temperature superconductors. Our finding marks a radical departure from the conventional view of superconducting fluctuations as a blurring and rounding phenomenon.

Superconductivity and fast proton transport in nanoconfined water

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Johnson, K. H.

2018-04-01

A real-space molecular-orbital density-wave description of Cooper pairing in conjunction with the dynamic Jahn-Teller mechanism for high-Tc superconductivity predicts that electron-doped water confined to the nanoscale environment of a carbon nanotube or biological macromolecule should superconduct below and exhibit fast proton transport above the transition temperature, Tc ≅ 230 K (-43 °C).

Signatures of pairing in the magnetic excitation spectrum of strongly correlated two-leg ladders [Signatures of pairing in the magnetic excitation spectrum of strongly correlated ladders

DOE PAGES

Nocera, Alberto; Patel, Niravkumar D.; Dagotto, Elbio R.; ...

2017-11-13

Magnetic interactions are widely believed to play a crucial role in the microscopic mechanism leading to high critical temperature superconductivity. It is therefore important to study the signatures of pairing in the magnetic excitation spectrum of simple models known to show unconventional superconducting tendencies. Using the density matrix renormalization group technique, we calculate the dynamical spin structure factor S(k,ω) of a generalized t–U–J Hubbard model away from half filling in a two-leg ladder geometry. The addition of J enhances pairing tendencies. We analyze quantitatively the signatures of pairing in the magnetic excitation spectra. We found that the superconducting pair-correlation strength,more » that can be estimated independently from ground state properties, is closely correlated with the integrated low-energy magnetic spectral weight in the vicinity of (π,π). In this wave-vector region, robust spin incommensurate features develop with increasing doping. The branch of the spectrum with rung direction wave vector k rung=0 does not change substantially with doping where pairing dominates and thus plays a minor role. As a result, we discuss the implications of our results for neutron scattering experiments, where the spin excitation dynamics of hole-doped quasi-one-dimensional magnetic materials can be measured and also address implications for recent resonant inelastic x-ray scattering experiments.« less

Signatures of pairing in the magnetic excitation spectrum of strongly correlated two-leg ladders [Signatures of pairing in the magnetic excitation spectrum of strongly correlated ladders

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Nocera, Alberto; Patel, Niravkumar D.; Dagotto, Elbio R.

Magnetic interactions are widely believed to play a crucial role in the microscopic mechanism leading to high critical temperature superconductivity. It is therefore important to study the signatures of pairing in the magnetic excitation spectrum of simple models known to show unconventional superconducting tendencies. Using the density matrix renormalization group technique, we calculate the dynamical spin structure factor S(k,ω) of a generalized t–U–J Hubbard model away from half filling in a two-leg ladder geometry. The addition of J enhances pairing tendencies. We analyze quantitatively the signatures of pairing in the magnetic excitation spectra. We found that the superconducting pair-correlation strength,more » that can be estimated independently from ground state properties, is closely correlated with the integrated low-energy magnetic spectral weight in the vicinity of (π,π). In this wave-vector region, robust spin incommensurate features develop with increasing doping. The branch of the spectrum with rung direction wave vector k rung=0 does not change substantially with doping where pairing dominates and thus plays a minor role. As a result, we discuss the implications of our results for neutron scattering experiments, where the spin excitation dynamics of hole-doped quasi-one-dimensional magnetic materials can be measured and also address implications for recent resonant inelastic x-ray scattering experiments.« less

Sign reversal of the order parameter in (Li1-xFex)OHFe1-yZnySe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Du, Zengyi; Yang, Xiong; Altenfeld, Dustin; Gu, Qiangqiang; Yang, Huan; Eremin, Ilya; Hirschfeld, Peter J.; Mazin, Igor I.; Lin, Hai; Zhu, Xiyu; Wen, Hai-Hu

2018-02-01

Iron pnictides are the only known family of unconventional high-temperature superconductors besides cuprates. Until recently, it was widely accepted that superconductivity is driven by spin fluctuations and intimately related to the fermiology, specifically, hole and electron pockets separated by the same wavevector that characterizes the dominant spin fluctuations, and supporting order parameters (OP) of opposite signs. This picture was questioned after the discovery of intercalated or monolayer form of FeSe-based systems without hole pockets, which seemingly undermines the basis for spin-fluctuation theory and the idea of a sign-changing OP. Using the recently proposed phase-sensitive quasiparticle interference technique, here we show that in LiOH-intercalated FeSe compound the OP does change sign, albeit within the electronic pockets. This result unifies the pairing mechanism of iron-based superconductors with or without the hole Fermi pockets and supports the conclusion that spin fluctuations play the key role in electron pairing.

Triplet p + ip pairing correlations in the doped Kane-Mele-Hubbard model: A quantum Monte Carlo study

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ma, Tianxing; Lin, Hai-Qing; Gubernatis, James E.

2015-09-01

By using the constrained-phase quantum Monte Carlo method, we performed a systematic study of the pairing correlations in the ground state of the doped Kane-Mele-Hubbard model on a honeycomb lattice. We find that pairing correlations with d + id symmetry dominate close to half filling, but pairing correlations with p+ip symmetry dominate as hole doping moves the system below three-quarters filling. We correlate these behaviors of the pairing correlations with the topology of the Fermi surfaces of the non-interacting problem. We also find that the effective pairing correlation is enhanced greatly as the interaction increases, and these superconducting correlations aremore » robust against varying the spin-orbit coupling strength. Finally, our numerical results suggest a possible way to realize spin triplet superconductivity in doped honeycomb-like materials or ultracold atoms in optical traps.« less

Pairing induced superconductivity in holography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bagrov, Andrey; Meszena, Balazs; Schalm, Koenraad

2014-09-01

We study pairing induced superconductivity in large N strongly coupled systems at finite density using holography. In the weakly coupled dual gravitational theory the mechanism is conventional BCS theory. An IR hard wall cut-off is included to ensure that we can controllably address the dynamics of a single confined Fermi surface. We address in detail the interplay between the scalar order parameter field and fermion pairing. Adding an explicitly dynamical scalar operator with the same quantum numbers as the fermion-pair, the theory experiences a BCS/BEC crossover controlled by the relative scaling dimensions. We find the novel result that this BCS/BEC crossover exposes resonances in the canonical expectation value of the scalar operator. This occurs not only when the scaling dimension is degenerate with the Cooper pair, but also with that of higher derivative paired operators. We speculate that a proper definition of the order parameter which takes mixing with these operators into account stays finite nevertheless.

Superconductivity-related insulating behavior.

PubMed

Sambandamurthy, G; Engel, L W; Johansson, A; Shahar, D

2004-03-12

We present the results of an experimental study of superconducting, disordered, thin films of amorphous indium oxide. These films can be driven from the superconducting phase to a reentrant insulating state by the application of a perpendicular magnetic field (B). We find that the high-B insulator exhibits activated transport with a characteristic temperature, TI. TI has a maximum value (TpI) that is close to the superconducting transition temperature (Tc) at B=0, suggesting a possible relation between the conduction mechanisms in the superconducting and insulating phases. Tp(I) and Tc display opposite dependences on the disorder strength.

Majorana surface modes of nodal topological pairings in spin-3/2 semimetals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Wang; Xiang, Tao; Wu, Congjun

2017-10-01

When solid state systems possess active orbital-band structures subject to spin-orbit coupling, their multicomponent electronic structures are often described in terms of effective large-spin fermion models. Their topological structures of superconductivity are beyond the framework of spin singlet and triplet Cooper pairings for spin-1/2 systems. Examples include the half-Heusler compound series of RPtBi, where R stands for a rare-earth element. Their spin-orbit coupled electronic structures are described by the Luttinger-Kohn model with effective spin-3/2 fermions and are characterized by band inversion. Recent experiments provide evidence to unconventional superconductivity in the YPtBi material with nodal spin-septet pairing. We systematically study topological pairing structures in spin-3/2 systems with the cubic group symmetries and calculate the surface Majorana spectra, which exhibit zero energy flat bands, or, cubic dispersion depending on the specific symmetry of the superconducting gap functions. The signatures of these surface states in the quasiparticle interference patterns of tunneling spectroscopy are studied, which can be tested in future experiments.

Electrical Conductivity through a Single Atomic Step Measured with the Proximity-Induced Superconducting Pair Correlation

DOE PAGES

Kim, Howon; Lin, Shi -Zeng; Graf, Matthias J.; ...

2016-09-08

Local disordered nanostructures in an atomically thick metallic layer on a semiconducting substrate play significant and decisive roles in transport properties of two-dimensional (2D) conductive systems. We measured the electrical conductivity through a step of monoatomic height in a truly microscopic manner by using as a signal the superconducting pair correlation induced by the proximity effect. The transport property across a step of a one-monolayer Pb surface metallic phase, formed on a Si(111) substrate, was evaluated by inducing the pair correlation around the local defect and measuring its response, i.e., the reduced density of states at the Fermi energy usingmore » scanning tunneling microscopy. We found that the step resistance has a significant contribution to the total resistance on a nominally flat surface. Our study also revealed that steps in the 2D metallic layer terminate the propagation of the pair correlation. Furthermore, superconductivity is enhanced between the first surface step and the superconductor–normal-metal interface by reflectionless tunneling when the step is located within a coherence length.« less

Electrical Conductivity through a Single Atomic Step Measured with the Proximity-Induced Superconducting Pair Correlation.

PubMed

Kim, Howon; Lin, Shi-Zeng; Graf, Matthias J; Miyata, Yoshinori; Nagai, Yuki; Kato, Takeo; Hasegawa, Yukio

2016-09-09

Local disordered nanostructures in an atomically thick metallic layer on a semiconducting substrate play significant and decisive roles in transport properties of two-dimensional (2D) conductive systems. We measured the electrical conductivity through a step of monoatomic height in a truly microscopic manner by using as a signal the superconducting pair correlation induced by the proximity effect. The transport property across a step of a one-monolayer Pb surface metallic phase, formed on a Si(111) substrate, was evaluated by inducing the pair correlation around the local defect and measuring its response, i.e., the reduced density of states at the Fermi energy using scanning tunneling microscopy. We found that the step resistance has a significant contribution to the total resistance on a nominally flat surface. Our study also revealed that steps in the 2D metallic layer terminate the propagation of the pair correlation. Superconductivity is enhanced between the first surface step and the superconductor-normal-metal interface by reflectionless tunneling when the step is located within a coherence length.

Topological superconductivity and the fractional Josephson effect in quasi-one dimensional wires on a plane

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nakhmedov, E.; Mammadova, S.; Alekperov, O.

2016-01-01

A time-reversal invariant topological superconductivity is suggested to be realized in a quasi-one-dimensional structure on a plane, which is fabricated by filling the superconducting materials into the periodic channel of dielectric matrices like zeolite and asbestos under high pressure. The topological superconducting phase sets up in the presence of large spin-orbit interactions when intra-wire s-wave and inter-wire d-wave pairings take place. Kramers pairs of Majorana bound states emerge at the edges of each wire. We analyze effects of the Zeeman magnetic field on Majorana zero-energy states. In-plane magnetic field was shown to make asymmetric the energy dispersion, nevertheless Majorana fermions survive due to protection of a particle-hole symmetry. Tunneling of Majorana quasiparticle from the end of one wire to the nearest-neighboring one yields edge fractional Josephson current with 4π-periodicity.

Topological RPdBi half-Heusler semimetals: A new family of noncentrosymmetric magnetic superconductors.

PubMed

Nakajima, Yasuyuki; Hu, Rongwei; Kirshenbaum, Kevin; Hughes, Alex; Syers, Paul; Wang, Xiangfeng; Wang, Kefeng; Wang, Renxiong; Saha, Shanta R; Pratt, Daniel; Lynn, Jeffrey W; Paglione, Johnpierre

2015-06-01

We report superconductivity and magnetism in a new family of topological semimetals, the ternary half-Heusler compound RPdBi (R: rare earth). In this series, tuning of the rare earth f-electron component allows for simultaneous control of both lattice density via lanthanide contraction and the strength of magnetic interaction via de Gennes scaling, allowing for a unique tuning of the normal-state band inversion strength, superconducting pairing, and magnetically ordered ground states. Antiferromagnetism with ordering vector (½,½,½) occurs below a Néel temperature that scales with de Gennes factor dG, whereas a superconducting transition is simultaneously supressed with increasing dG. With superconductivity appearing in a system with noncentrosymmetric crystallographic symmetry, the possibility of spin-triplet Cooper pairing with nontrivial topology analogous to that predicted for the normal-state electronic structure provides a unique and rich opportunity to realize both predicted and new exotic excitations in topological materials.

Superconductivity from a non-Fermi-liquid metal: Kondo fluctuation mechanism in slave-fermion theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Ki-Seok

2010-03-01

We propose Kondo fluctuation mechanism of superconductivity, differentiated from the spin-fluctuation theory as the standard model for unconventional superconductivity in the weak-coupling approach. Based on the U(1) slave-fermion representation of an effective Anderson lattice model, where localized spins are described by the Schwinger boson theory and hybridization or Kondo fluctuations weaken antiferromagnetic correlations of localized spins, we found an antiferromagnetic quantum critical point from an antiferromagnetic metal to a heavy-fermion metal in our recent study. The Kondo-induced antiferromagnetic quantum critical point was shown to be described by both conduction electrons and fermionic holons interacting with critical spin fluctuations given by deconfined bosonic spinons with a spin quantum number 1/2. Surprisingly, such critical modes turned out to be described by the dynamical exponent z=3 , giving rise to the well-known non-Fermi-liquid physics such as the divergent Grüneisen ratio with an exponent 2/3 and temperature-linear resistivity in three dimensions. We find that the z=3 antiferromagnetic quantum critical point becomes unstable against superconductivity, where critical spinon excitations give rise to pairing correlations between conduction electrons and between fermionic holons, respectively, via hybridization fluctuations. Such two kinds of pairing correlations result in multigap unconventional superconductivity around the antiferromagnetic quantum critical point of the slave-fermion theory, where s -wave pairing is not favored generically due to strong correlations. We show that the ratio between each superconducting gap for conduction electrons Δc and holons Δf and the transition temperature Tc is 2Δc/Tc˜9 and 2Δf/Tc˜O(10-1) , remarkably consistent with CeCoIn5 . A fingerprint of the Kondo mechanism is emergence of two kinds of resonance modes in not only spin but also charge fluctuations, where the charge resonance mode at an antiferromagnetic wave vector originates from d -wave pairing of spinless holons. We discuss how the Kondo fluctuation theory differs from the spin-fluctuation approach.

Bosonic excitations and electron pairing in an electron-doped cuprate superconductor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, M. C.; Yu, H. S.; Xiong, J.; Yang, Y.-F.; Luo, S. N.; Jin, K.; Qi, J.

2018-04-01

By applying ultrafast optical spectroscopy to electron-doped La1.9Ce0.1CuO4 ±δ , we discern a bosonic mode of electronic origin and provide the evolution of its coupling with the charge carriers as a function of temperature. Our results show that it has the strongest coupling strength near Tc and can fully account for the superconducting pairing. This mode can be associated with the two-dimensional antiferromagnetic spin correlations emerging below a critical temperature T† larger than Tc. Our work may help to establish a quantitative relation between bosonic excitations and superconducting pairing in electron-doped cuprates.

Interplay of screening and superconductivity in low-dimensional materials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schönhoff, G.; Rösner, M.; Groenewald, R. E.; Haas, S.; Wehling, T. O.

2016-10-01

A quantitative description of Coulomb interactions is developed for two-dimensional superconducting materials, enabling us to compare intrinsic with external screening effects, such as those due to substrates. Using the example of a doped monolayer of MoS2 embedded in a tunable dielectric environment, we demonstrate that the influence of external screening is limited to a length scale, bounded from below by the effective thickness of the quasi-two-dimensional material and from above by its intrinsic screening length. As a consequence, it is found that unconventional Coulomb-driven superconductivity cannot be induced in MoS2 by tuning the substrate properties alone. Our calculations of the retarded Morel-Anderson Coulomb potential μ* reveal that the Coulomb interactions, renormalized by the reduced layer thickness and the substrate properties, can shift the onset of the electron-phonon driven superconducting phase in monolayer MoS2 but do not significantly affect the critical temperature at optimal doping.

Meeting No Resistance.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Buzdin, Alexander; Varlamov, Andrey

1991-01-01

Describes the history and the development of the field of superconductivity. Identifies the significant interaction of electrons to form Cooper pairs. Presents background theory, describes approaches, and discusses problems encountered in the search for better high temperature superconducting materials. Provides technological applications of…

Quantum fluctuations of the superconducting cosmic string

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zhang, Shoucheng

1987-01-01

Quantum fluctuations of the proposed superconducting string with Bose charge carriers are studied in terms of the vortices on the string world sheet. In the thermodynamical limit, it is found that they appear in the form of free vortices rather than as bound pairs. This fluctuation mode violates the topological conservation law on which superconductivity is based. However, this limit may not be reached. The critical size of the superconducting string is estimated as a function of the coupling constants involved.

Effect of Fibonacci modulation on superconductivity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gupta, Sanjay; Sil, Shreekantha; Bhattacharyya, Bibhas

2006-02-01

We have studied finite-sized single band models with short-range pairing interactions between electrons in the presence of diagonal Fibonacci modulation in one dimension. Two models, namely the attractive Hubbard model and the Penson-Kolb model, have been investigated at half-filling at zero temperature by solving the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations in real space within a mean-field approximation. The competition between 'disorder' and the pairing interaction leads to a suppression of superconductivity (of usual pairs with zero centre-of-mass momenta) in the strong-coupling limit while an enhancement of the pairing correlation is observed in the weak-coupling regime for both models. However, the dissimilarity of the pairing mechanisms in these two models brings about notable differences in the results. The extent to which the bond-ordered wave and the η-paired (of pairs with centre-of-mass momenta = π) phases of the Penson-Kolb model are affected by the disorder has also been studied in the present calculation. Some finite size effects are also identified.

High-fidelity frequency down-conversion of visible entangled photon pairs with superconducting single-photon detectors

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ikuta, Rikizo; Kato, Hiroshi; Kusaka, Yoshiaki

We experimentally demonstrate a high-fidelity visible-to-telecommunicationwavelength conversion of a photon by using a solid-state-based difference frequency generation. In the experiment, one half of a pico-second visible entangled photon pair at 780 nm is converted to a 1522-nm photon. Using superconducting single-photon detectors with low dark count rates and small timing jitters, we observed a fidelity of 0.93±0.04 after the wavelength conversion.

How experimentally to detect a solitary superconductivity in dirty ferromagnet-superconductor trilayers?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Avdeev, Maxim V.; Proshin, Yurii N.

2017-10-01

We theoretically study the proximity effect in the thin-film layered ferromagnet (F) - superconductor (S) heterostructures in F1F2S design. We consider the boundary value problem for the Usadel-like equations in the case of so-called ;dirty; limit. The ;latent; superconducting pairing interaction in F layers taken into account. The focus is on the recipe of experimental preparation the state with so-called solitary superconductivity. We also propose and discuss the model of the superconducting spin valve based on F1F2S trilayers in solitary superconductivity regime.

Emergence of superconductivity in heavy-electron materials

PubMed Central

Yang, Yi-feng; Pines, David

2014-01-01

Although the pairing glue for the attractive quasiparticle interaction responsible for unconventional superconductivity in heavy-electron materials has been identified as the spin fluctuations that arise from their proximity to a magnetic quantum critical point, there has been no model to describe their superconducting transition at temperature Tc that is comparable to that found by Bardeen, Cooper, and Schrieffer (BCS) for conventional superconductors, where phonons provide the pairing glue. Here we propose such a model: a phenomenological BCS-like expression for Tc in heavy-electron materials that is based on a simple model for the effective range and strength of the spin-fluctuation-induced quasiparticle interaction and reflects the unusual properties of the heavy-electron normal state from which superconductivity emerges. We show that it provides a quantitative understanding of the pressure-induced variation of Tc in the “hydrogen atoms” of unconventional superconductivity, CeCoIn5 and CeRhIn5, predicts scaling behavior and a dome-like structure for Tc in all heavy-electron quantum critical superconductors, provides unexpected connections between members of this family, and quantifies their variations in Tc with a single parameter. PMID:25489102

Three superconducting phases with different categories of pairing in hole- and electron-doped LaFeAs1 -xPxO

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miyasaka, S.; Uekubo, M.; Tsuji, H.; Nakajima, M.; Tajima, S.; Shiota, T.; Mukuda, H.; Sagayama, H.; Nakao, H.; Kumai, R.; Murakami, Y.

2017-06-01

The phase diagram of the LaFeAs1 -xPxO system has been extensively studied through hole and electron doping as well as As/P substitution. It has been revealed that there are three different superconducting phases with different Fermi surface (FS) topologies and thus with possibly different pairing glues. One of them is well understood as spin fluctuation-mediated superconductivity within a FS nesting scenario. Another one with the FSs in a bad nesting condition must be explained in a different context such as orbital or spin fluctuation in a strongly correlated electronic system. In both phases, T -linear resistivity was commonly observed when the superconducting transition temperature Tc becomes the highest value, indicating that the strength of bosonic fluctuation determines Tc. In the last superconducting phase, the nesting condition of FSs and the related bosonic fluctuation are moderate. Variety of phase diagram characterizes the multiple orbital nature of the iron-based superconductors which are just near the boundary between weak and strong correlation regimes.

Unconventional Superconductivity in La(7)Ir(3) Revealed by Muon Spin Relaxation: Introducing a New Family of Noncentrosymmetric Superconductor That Breaks Time-Reversal Symmetry.

PubMed

Barker, J A T; Singh, D; Thamizhavel, A; Hillier, A D; Lees, M R; Balakrishnan, G; Paul, D McK; Singh, R P

2015-12-31

The superconductivity of the noncentrosymmetric compound La(7)Ir(3) is investigated using muon spin rotation and relaxation. Zero-field measurements reveal the presence of spontaneous static or quasistatic magnetic fields below the superconducting transition temperature T(c)=2.25  K-a clear indication that the superconducting state breaks time-reversal symmetry. Furthermore, transverse-field rotation measurements suggest that the superconducting gap is isotropic and that the pairing symmetry of the superconducting electrons is predominantly s wave with an enhanced binding strength. The results indicate that the superconductivity in La(7)Ir(3) may be unconventional and paves the way for further studies of this family of materials.

Impact of nearest-neighbor repulsion on superconducting pairing in 2D extended Hubbard model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jiang, Mi; Hahner, U. R.; Maier, T. A.; Schulthess, T. C.

Using dynamical cluster approximation (DCA) with an continuous-time QMC solver for the two-dimensional extended Hubbard model, we studied the impact of nearest-neighbor Coulomb repulsion V on d-wave superconducting pairing dynamics. By solving Bethe-Salpeter equation for particle-particle superconducting channel, we focused on the evolution of leading d-wave eigenvalue with V and the momentum and frequency dependence of the corresponding eigenfunction. The comparison with the evolution of both spin and charge susceptibilities versus V is presented showing the competition between spin and charge fluctuations. This research received generous support from the MARVEL NCCR and used resources of the Swiss National Supercomputing Center, as well as (INCITE) program in Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility.

Perturbation Theory of Spin-Triplet Superconductivity for Sr 2RuO 4

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nomura, Takuji; Yamada, Kosaku

2000-11-01

We discuss the possibility of spin-triplet superconductivity within the third order perturbation theory with respect to on-site Coulomb repulsion U. Critical temperature T c for spin-triplet pairing state is calculated in a single-band two-dimensional Hubbard modeland relatively high T c is obtained for moderately large U. The present situation considered here is particularly intended for the main branch γ in Sr2RuO4. According to the calculation, third order vertex correction terms, which are not direct contribution from spin fluctuation, are important, while the bare susceptibility χ0(q) need not always have a prominent peak at q=0 for the spin-triplet pairing state. The picture that strong ferromagnetic spin fluctuations mainly induce the spin-triplet superconductivity in Sr2RuO4 may not be appropriate, and such momentum dependence of renormalized effective interaction between quasi-particles as is not sufficiently taken into accountin spin fluctuation mediated interaction is essential for realizing the spin-triplet pairing.

Emergent loop-nodal s(±)-wave superconductivity in CeCu(2)Si(2): similarities to the iron-based superconductors.

PubMed

Ikeda, Hiroaki; Suzuki, Michi-To; Arita, Ryotaro

2015-04-10

Heavy-fermion superconductors are prime candidates for novel electron-pairing states due to the spin-orbital coupled degrees of freedom and electron correlations. Superconductivity in CeCu_{2}Si_{2} discovered in 1979, which is a prototype of unconventional (non-BCS) superconductors in strongly correlated electron systems, still remains unsolved. Here we provide the first report of superconductivity based on the advanced first-principles theoretical approach. We find that the promising candidate is an s_{±}-wave state with loop-shaped nodes on the Fermi surface, different from the widely expected line-nodal d-wave state. The dominant pairing glue is magnetic but high-rank octupole fluctuations. This system shares the importance of multiorbital degrees of freedom with the iron-based superconductors. Our findings reveal not only the long-standing puzzle in this material, but also urge us to reconsider the pairing states and mechanisms in all heavy-fermion superconductors.

Tunable hybridization of Majorana bound states at the quantum spin Hall edge

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Keidel, Felix; Burset, Pablo; Trauzettel, Björn

2018-02-01

Confinement at the helical edge of a topological insulator is possible in the presence of proximity-induced magnetic (F) or superconducting (S) order. The interplay of both phenomena leads to the formation of localized Majorana bound states (MBS) or likewise (under certain resonance conditions) the formation of ordinary Andreev bound states (ABS). We investigate the properties of bound states in junctions composed of alternating regions of F or S barriers. Interestingly, the direction of magnetization in F regions and the relative superconducting phase between S regions can be exploited to hybridize MBS or ABS at will. We show that the local properties of MBS translate into a particular nonlocal superconducting pairing amplitude. Remarkably, the symmetry of the pairing amplitude contains information about the nature of the bound state that it stems from. Hence this symmetry can in principle be used to distinguish MBS from ABS, owing to the strong connection between local density of states and nonlocal pairing in our setup.

Dirty two-band superconductivity with interband pairing order

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Asano, Yasuhiro; Sasaki, Akihiro; Golubov, Alexander A.

2018-04-01

We study theoretically the effects of random nonmagnetic impurities on the superconducting transition temperature T c in a two-band superconductor characterized by an equal-time s-wave interband pairing order parameter. Because of the two-band degree of freedom, it is possible to define a spin-triplet s-wave pairing order parameter as well as a spin-singlet s-wave order parameter. The former belongs to odd-band-parity symmetry class, whereas the latter belongs to even-band-parity symmetry class. In a spin-singlet superconductor, T c is insensitive to the impurity concentration when we estimate the self-energy due to the random impurity potential within the Born approximation. On the other hand in a spin-triplet superconductor, T c decreases with the increase of the impurity concentration. We conclude that Cooper pairs belonging to odd-band-parity symmetry class are fragile under the random impurity potential even though they have s-wave pairing symmetry.

Micrometer-Scale Ballistic Transport of Electron Pairs in LaAlO_{3}/SrTiO_{3} Nanowires.

PubMed

Tomczyk, Michelle; Cheng, Guanglei; Lee, Hyungwoo; Lu, Shicheng; Annadi, Anil; Veazey, Joshua P; Huang, Mengchen; Irvin, Patrick; Ryu, Sangwoo; Eom, Chang-Beom; Levy, Jeremy

2016-08-26

High-mobility complex-oxide heterostructures and nanostructures offer new opportunities for extending the paradigm of quantum transport beyond the realm of traditional III-V or carbon-based materials. Recent quantum transport investigations with LaAlO_{3}/SrTiO_{3}-based quantum dots reveal the existence of a strongly correlated phase in which electrons form spin-singlet pairs without becoming superconducting. Here, we report evidence for the micrometer-scale ballistic transport of electron pairs in quasi-1D LaAlO_{3}/SrTiO_{3} nanowire cavities. In the paired phase, Fabry-Perot-like quantum interference is observed, in sync with conductance oscillations observed in the superconducting regime (at a zero magnetic field). Above a critical magnetic field B_{p}, the electron pairs unbind and the conductance oscillations shift with the magnetic field. These experimental observations extend the regime of ballistic electronic transport to strongly correlated phases.

Superconductivity mediated by quantum critical antiferromagnetic fluctuations: The rise and fall of hot spots

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Xiaoyu; Schattner, Yoni; Berg, Erez; Fernandes, Rafael M.

2017-05-01

In several unconventional superconductors, the highest superconducting transition temperature Tc is found in a region of the phase diagram where the antiferromagnetic transition temperature extrapolates to zero, signaling a putative quantum critical point. The elucidation of the interplay between these two phenomena—high-Tc superconductivity and magnetic quantum criticality—remains an important piece of the complex puzzle of unconventional superconductivity. In this paper, we combine sign-problem-free quantum Monte Carlo simulations and field-theoretical analytical calculations to unveil the microscopic mechanism responsible for the superconducting instability of a general low-energy model, called the spin-fermion model. In this approach, low-energy electronic states interact with each other via the exchange of quantum critical magnetic fluctuations. We find that even in the regime of moderately strong interactions, both the superconducting transition temperature and the pairing susceptibility are governed not by the properties of the entire Fermi surface, but instead by the properties of small portions of the Fermi surface called hot spots. Moreover, Tc increases with increasing interaction strength, until it starts to saturate at the crossover from hot-spots-dominated to Fermi-surface-dominated pairing. Our work provides not only invaluable insights into the system parameters that most strongly affect Tc, but also important benchmarks to assess the origin of superconductivity in both microscopic models and actual materials.

Rotational symmetry breaking in the topological superconductor SrxBi2Se3 probed by upper-critical field experiments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pan, Y.; Nikitin, A. M.; Araizi, G. K.; Huang, Y. K.; Matsushita, Y.; Naka, T.; de Visser, A.

2016-06-01

Recently it was demonstrated that Sr intercalation provides a new route to induce superconductivity in the topological insulator Bi2Se3. Topological superconductors are predicted to be unconventional with an odd-parity pairing symmetry. An adequate probe to test for unconventional superconductivity is the upper critical field, Bc2. For a standard BCS layered superconductor Bc2 shows an anisotropy when the magnetic field is applied parallel and perpendicular to the layers, but is isotropic when the field is rotated in the plane of the layers. Here we report measurements of the upper critical field of superconducting SrxBi2Se3 crystals (Tc = 3.0 K). Surprisingly, field-angle dependent magnetotransport measurements reveal a large anisotropy of Bc2 when the magnet field is rotated in the basal plane. The large two-fold anisotropy, while six-fold is anticipated, cannot be explained with the Ginzburg-Landau anisotropic effective mass model or flux flow induced by the Lorentz force. The rotational symmetry breaking of Bc2 indicates unconventional superconductivity with odd-parity spin-triplet Cooper pairs (Δ4-pairing) recently proposed for rhombohedral topological superconductors, or might have a structural nature, such as self-organized stripe ordering of Sr atoms.

Rotational symmetry breaking in the topological superconductor SrxBi2Se3 probed by upper-critical field experiments.

PubMed

Pan, Y; Nikitin, A M; Araizi, G K; Huang, Y K; Matsushita, Y; Naka, T; de Visser, A

2016-06-28

Recently it was demonstrated that Sr intercalation provides a new route to induce superconductivity in the topological insulator Bi2Se3. Topological superconductors are predicted to be unconventional with an odd-parity pairing symmetry. An adequate probe to test for unconventional superconductivity is the upper critical field, Bc2. For a standard BCS layered superconductor Bc2 shows an anisotropy when the magnetic field is applied parallel and perpendicular to the layers, but is isotropic when the field is rotated in the plane of the layers. Here we report measurements of the upper critical field of superconducting SrxBi2Se3 crystals (Tc = 3.0 K). Surprisingly, field-angle dependent magnetotransport measurements reveal a large anisotropy of Bc2 when the magnet field is rotated in the basal plane. The large two-fold anisotropy, while six-fold is anticipated, cannot be explained with the Ginzburg-Landau anisotropic effective mass model or flux flow induced by the Lorentz force. The rotational symmetry breaking of Bc2 indicates unconventional superconductivity with odd-parity spin-triplet Cooper pairs (Δ4-pairing) recently proposed for rhombohedral topological superconductors, or might have a structural nature, such as self-organized stripe ordering of Sr atoms.

Rotational symmetry breaking in the topological superconductor SrxBi2Se3 probed by upper-critical field experiments

PubMed Central

Pan, Y.; Nikitin, A. M.; Araizi, G. K.; Huang, Y. K.; Matsushita, Y.; Naka, T.; de Visser, A.

2016-01-01

Recently it was demonstrated that Sr intercalation provides a new route to induce superconductivity in the topological insulator Bi2Se3. Topological superconductors are predicted to be unconventional with an odd-parity pairing symmetry. An adequate probe to test for unconventional superconductivity is the upper critical field, Bc2. For a standard BCS layered superconductor Bc2 shows an anisotropy when the magnetic field is applied parallel and perpendicular to the layers, but is isotropic when the field is rotated in the plane of the layers. Here we report measurements of the upper critical field of superconducting SrxBi2Se3 crystals (Tc = 3.0 K). Surprisingly, field-angle dependent magnetotransport measurements reveal a large anisotropy of Bc2 when the magnet field is rotated in the basal plane. The large two-fold anisotropy, while six-fold is anticipated, cannot be explained with the Ginzburg-Landau anisotropic effective mass model or flux flow induced by the Lorentz force. The rotational symmetry breaking of Bc2 indicates unconventional superconductivity with odd-parity spin-triplet Cooper pairs (Δ4-pairing) recently proposed for rhombohedral topological superconductors, or might have a structural nature, such as self-organized stripe ordering of Sr atoms. PMID:27350295

Lighting up superconducting stripes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ergeçen, Emre; Gedik, Nuh

2018-02-01

Cuprate superconductors display a plethora of complex phases as a function of temperature and carrier concentration, the understanding of which could provide clues into the mechanism of superconductivity. For example, when about one-eighth of the conduction electrons are removed from the copper oxygen planes in cuprates such as La2‑xBaxCuO4 (LBCO), the doped holes (missing electrons) organize into one-dimensional stripes (1). The bulk superconducting transition temperature (Tc) is greatly reduced, and just above Tc, electrical transport perpendicular to the planes (along the c axis) becomes resistive, but parallel to the copper oxygen planes, resistivity remains zero for a range of temperatures (2). It was proposed a decade ago (3) that this anisotropic behavior is caused by pair density waves (PDWs); superconducting Cooper pairs exist along the stripes within the planes but cannot tunnel to the adjacent layers. On page 575 of this issue, Rajasekaran et al. (4) now report detection of this state in LBCO using nonlinear reflection of high-intensity terahertz (THz) light.

Designing heterostructures with higher-temperature superconductivity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Le Hur, Karyn; Chung, Chung-Hou; Paul, I.

2011-07-01

We propose to increase the superconducting transition temperature Tc of strongly correlated materials by designing heterostructures which exhibit a high pairing energy as a result of magnetic fluctuations. More precisely, applying an effective theory of the doped Mott insulator, we envisage a bilayer Hubbard system where both layers exhibit intrinsic intralayer (intraband) d-wave superconducting correlations. Introducing a finite asymmetry between the hole densities of the two layers such that one layer becomes slightly more underdoped and the other more overdoped, we show a visible enhancement of Tc compared to the optimally doped isolated layer. Using the bonding and antibonding band basis, we show that the mechanism behind this enhancement of Tc is the interband pairing correlation mediated by the hole asymmetry which strives to decrease the paramagnetic nodal contribution to the superfluid stiffness. For two identical layers, Tc remains comparable to that of the isolated layer until moderate values of the interlayer single-particle tunneling term. These heterostructures shed new light on fundamental questions related to superconductivity.

Temperature-dependent transformation of the magnetic excitation spectrum on approaching superconductivity in Fe(1+y-x)(Ni/Cu)(x)Te(0.5)Se(0.5).

PubMed

Xu, Zhijun; Wen, Jinsheng; Zhao, Yang; Matsuda, Masaaki; Ku, Wei; Liu, Xuerong; Gu, Genda; Lee, D-H; Birgeneau, R J; Tranquada, J M; Xu, Guangyong

2012-11-30

Spin excitations are one of the top candidates for mediating electron pairing in unconventional superconductors. Their coupling to superconductivity is evident in a large number of systems, by the observation of an abrupt redistribution of magnetic spectral weight at the superconducting transition temperature, T(c), for energies comparable to the superconducting gap. Here we report inelastic neutron scattering measurements on Fe-based superconductors, Fe(1+y-x)(Ni/Cu)(x)Te(0.5)Se(0.5) that emphasize an additional signature. The overall shape of the low energy magnetic dispersion changes from two incommensurate vertical columns at T≫T(c) to a distinctly different U-shaped dispersion at low temperature. Importantly, this spectral reconstruction is apparent for temperatures up to ~3T(c). If the magnetic excitations are involved in the pairing mechanism, their surprising modification on the approach to T(c) demonstrates that strong interactions are involved.

Mechanism of Superconductivity in Quasi-Two-Dimensional Organic Conductor β-(BDA-TTP) Salts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nonoyama, Yoshito; Maekawa, Yukiko; Kobayashi, Akito; Suzumura, Yoshikazu; Ito, Hiroshi

2008-09-01

We investigate theoretically the superconductivity of two-dimensional organic conductors, β-(BDA-TTP)2SbF6 and β-(BDA-TTP)2AsF6, to understand the role of the spin and charge fluctuations. The transition temperature is estimated by applying random phase approximation to an extended Hubbard model wherein realistic transfer energies are estimated by extended Hückel calculation. We find a gapless superconducting state with a dxy-like symmetry, which is consistent with the experimental results obtained by specific heat and scanning tunneling microscope. In the present model with an effectively half-filled triangular lattice, spin fluctuation competes with charge fluctuation as a mechanism of pairing interaction since both fluctuations have the same characteristic momentum q=(π,0) for V being smaller than U. This is in contrast to a model with a quarter-filled square lattice, wherein both fluctuations contribute cooperatively to pairing interaction due to fluctuations having different characteristic momenta. The resultant difference in the superconductivity of these two materials is also discussed.

Electron correlations and magnetism in iron-based superconductors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Birgeneau, Robert

We have carried out a comprehensive study of the phase diagram, structures and phase transitions in the system RbxFeySe2-zSz. We find that the iron content is crucial in stabilizing the stripe antiferromagnetic (AF) phase (y 1.5), the block AF phase (y 1,6) and the iron vacancy-free metallic phase (y 2). These phases are separated by first order transitions. In going from superconducting Rb0.8Fe2Se2 to non-superconducting Rb0.8Fe2S2 we observe in our ARPES experiments little change in the Fermi surface topology but an increase in the overall bandwidth by a factor of 2, hence demonstrating that moderate correlation is essential in achieving high Tc. We show also using neutron scattering that for z =0 there is a sharp magnetic resonance mode well below the superconducting gap which is replaced by a broad hump structure above the gap for z 1. This is accompanied by an insignificant change in Tc. This implies a concomitant change from sign-reversed to sign preserved Cooper-Pairing symmetry driven by the change in electron band width. In this talk we will discuss the overall significance of this rich behavior observed in this alkali Fe-chalcogenide system. This work was supported by the Director, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05-CH11231 within the Quantum Materials Program (KC2202).

Pair density waves in superconducting vortex halos

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Yuxuan; Edkins, Stephen D.; Hamidian, Mohammad H.; Davis, J. C. Séamus; Fradkin, Eduardo; Kivelson, Steven A.

2018-05-01

We analyze the interplay between a d -wave uniform superconducting and a pair-density-wave (PDW) order parameter in the neighborhood of a vortex. We develop a phenomenological nonlinear sigma model, solve the saddle-point equation for the order-parameter configuration, and compute the resulting local density of states in the vortex halo. The intertwining of the two superconducting orders leads to a charge density modulation with the same periodicity as the PDW, which is twice the period of the charge density wave that arises as a second harmonic of the PDW itself. We discuss key features of the charge density modulation that can be directly compared with recent results from scanning tunneling microscopy and speculate on the role PDW order may play in the global phase diagram of the hole-doped cuprates.

Theory of the interplay between the superconductivity and the blocked antiferromagnetic order in A(y)Fe(2-x)Se2.

PubMed

Jiang, Hong-Min

2012-09-26

Based on an effective two-orbital tight-binding model, we examine the possible superconducting states in iron-vacancy-ordered A(y)Fe(2-x)Se(2). In the presence of ordered vacancies and blocked antiferromagnetic order, it is shown that the emergent SC pairing is the nodeless next-nearest-neighbor (NNN)-pairing due to the dominant antiferromagnetic (AFM) interaction between the inter-block NNN sites. In particular, we show that due to the ordered vacancies and the associated blocked AFM order, the interplay between the superconducting and AFM states results in three distinct states in the phase diagram as doping is varied. The divergent experimental observations can be accounted for by considering the different charge carrier concentrations in their respective compounds.

Driven superconducting quantum circuits

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nakamura, Yasunobu

2014-03-01

Driven nonlinear quantum systems show rich phenomena in various fields of physics. Among them, superconducting quantum circuits have very attractive features such as well-controlled quantum states with design flexibility, strong nonlinearity of Josephson junctions, strong coupling to electromagnetic driving fields, little internal dissipation, and tailored coupling to the electromagnetic environment. We have investigated properties and functionalities of driven superconducting quantum circuits. A transmon qubit coupled to a transmission line shows nearly perfect spatial mode matching between the incident and scattered microwave field in the 1D mode. Dressed states under a driving field are studied there and also in a semi-infinite 1D mode terminated by a resonator containing a flux qubit. An effective Λ-type three-level system is realized under an appropriate driving condition. It allows ``impedance-matched'' perfect absorption of incident probe photons and down conversion into another frequency mode. Finally, the weak signal from the qubit is read out using a Josephson parametric amplifier/oscillator which is another nonlinear circuit driven by a strong pump field. This work was partly supported by the Funding Program for World-Leading Innovative R&D on Science and Technology (FIRST), Project for Developing Innovation Systems of MEXT, MEXT KAKENHI ``Quantum Cybernetics,'' and the NICT Commissioned Research.

Enhancement and sign change of magnetic correlations in a driven quantum many-body system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Görg, Frederik; Messer, Michael; Sandholzer, Kilian; Jotzu, Gregor; Desbuquois, Rémi; Esslinger, Tilman

2018-01-01

Periodic driving can be used to control the properties of a many-body state coherently and to realize phases that are not accessible in static systems. For example, exposing materials to intense laser pulses makes it possible to induce metal-insulator transitions, to control magnetic order and to generate transient superconducting behaviour well above the static transition temperature. However, pinning down the mechanisms underlying these phenomena is often difficult because the response of a material to irradiation is governed by complex, many-body dynamics. For static systems, extensive calculations have been performed to explain phenomena such as high-temperature superconductivity. Theoretical analyses of driven many-body Hamiltonians are more challenging, but approaches have now been developed, motivated by recent observations. Here we report an experimental quantum simulation in a periodically modulated hexagonal lattice and show that antiferromagnetic correlations in a fermionic many-body system can be reduced, enhanced or even switched to ferromagnetic correlations (sign reversal). We demonstrate that the description of the many-body system using an effective Floquet-Hamiltonian with a renormalized tunnelling energy remains valid in the high-frequency regime by comparing the results to measurements in an equivalent static lattice. For near-resonant driving, the enhancement and sign reversal of correlations is explained by a microscopic model of the system in which the particle tunnelling and magnetic exchange energies can be controlled independently. In combination with the observed sufficiently long lifetimes of the correlations in this system, periodic driving thus provides an alternative way of investigating unconventional pairing in strongly correlated systems experimentally.

Enhancement and sign change of magnetic correlations in a driven quantum many-body system.

PubMed

Görg, Frederik; Messer, Michael; Sandholzer, Kilian; Jotzu, Gregor; Desbuquois, Rémi; Esslinger, Tilman

2018-01-24

Periodic driving can be used to control the properties of a many-body state coherently and to realize phases that are not accessible in static systems. For example, exposing materials to intense laser pulses makes it possible to induce metal-insulator transitions, to control magnetic order and to generate transient superconducting behaviour well above the static transition temperature. However, pinning down the mechanisms underlying these phenomena is often difficult because the response of a material to irradiation is governed by complex, many-body dynamics. For static systems, extensive calculations have been performed to explain phenomena such as high-temperature superconductivity. Theoretical analyses of driven many-body Hamiltonians are more challenging, but approaches have now been developed, motivated by recent observations. Here we report an experimental quantum simulation in a periodically modulated hexagonal lattice and show that antiferromagnetic correlations in a fermionic many-body system can be reduced, enhanced or even switched to ferromagnetic correlations (sign reversal). We demonstrate that the description of the many-body system using an effective Floquet-Hamiltonian with a renormalized tunnelling energy remains valid in the high-frequency regime by comparing the results to measurements in an equivalent static lattice. For near-resonant driving, the enhancement and sign reversal of correlations is explained by a microscopic model of the system in which the particle tunnelling and magnetic exchange energies can be controlled independently. In combination with the observed sufficiently long lifetimes of the correlations in this system, periodic driving thus provides an alternative way of investigating unconventional pairing in strongly correlated systems experimentally.

Quasi-particles ultrafastly releasing kink bosons to form Fermi arcs in a cuprate superconductor.

PubMed

Ishida, Y; Saitoh, T; Mochiku, T; Nakane, T; Hirata, K; Shin, S

2016-01-05

In a conventional framework, superconductivity is lost at a critical temperature (Tc) because, at higher temperatures, gluing bosons can no longer bind two electrons into a Cooper pair. In high-Tc cuprates, it is still unknown how superconductivity vanishes at Tc. We provide evidence that the so-called ≲ 70-meV kink bosons that dress the quasi-particle excitations are playing a key role in the loss of superconductivity in a cuprate. We irradiated a 170-fs laser pulse on Bi2Sr2CaCu2O(8+δ) and monitored the responses of the superconducting gap and dressed quasi-particles by time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. We observe an ultrafast loss of superconducting gap near the d-wave node, or light-induced Fermi arcs, which is accompanied by spectral broadenings and weight redistributions occurring within the kink binding energy. We discuss that the underlying mechanism of the spectral broadening that induce the Fermi arc is the undressing of quasi-particles from the kink bosons. The loss mechanism is beyond the conventional framework, and can accept the unconventional phenomena such as the signatures of Cooper pairs remaining at temperatures above Tc.

Quasi-particles ultrafastly releasing kink bosons to form Fermi arcs in a cuprate superconductor

PubMed Central

Ishida, Y.; Saitoh, T.; Mochiku, T.; Nakane, T.; Hirata, K.; Shin, S.

2016-01-01

In a conventional framework, superconductivity is lost at a critical temperature (Tc) because, at higher temperatures, gluing bosons can no longer bind two electrons into a Cooper pair. In high-Tc cuprates, it is still unknown how superconductivity vanishes at Tc. We provide evidence that the so-called ≲70-meV kink bosons that dress the quasi-particle excitations are playing a key role in the loss of superconductivity in a cuprate. We irradiated a 170-fs laser pulse on Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ and monitored the responses of the superconducting gap and dressed quasi-particles by time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. We observe an ultrafast loss of superconducting gap near the d-wave node, or light-induced Fermi arcs, which is accompanied by spectral broadenings and weight redistributions occurring within the kink binding energy. We discuss that the underlying mechanism of the spectral broadening that induce the Fermi arc is the undressing of quasi-particles from the kink bosons. The loss mechanism is beyond the conventional framework, and can accept the unconventional phenomena such as the signatures of Cooper pairs remaining at temperatures above Tc. PMID:26728626

Superconductivity as a Synchronous Spatial Alternation of Valence Bonds.

DTIC Science & Technology

1987-04-01

approach. 9 This is likely to be the case in three-dimensions as well. As pair breaking excitations ( magnons ) can be formed at essentially no energy...cost (remember the form of the magnon dispersion curve of 1-D Heisenberg model), superconductivity cannot be achieved. In principle, these metals can be

Superconductivity-induced magnetization depletion in a ferromagnet through an insulator in a ferromagnet-insulator-superconductor hybrid oxide heterostructure.

PubMed

Prajapat, C L; Singh, Surendra; Paul, Amitesh; Bhattacharya, D; Singh, M R; Mattauch, S; Ravikumar, G; Basu, S

2016-05-21

Coupling between superconducting and ferromagnetic states in hybrid oxide heterostructures is presently a topic of intense research. Such a coupling is due to the leakage of the Cooper pairs into the ferromagnet. However, tunneling of the Cooper pairs though an insulator was never considered plausible. Using depth sensitive polarized neutron reflectivity we demonstrate the coupling between superconductor and magnetic layers in epitaxial La2/3Ca1/3MnO3 (LCMO)/SrTiO3/YBa2Cu3O7-δ (YBCO) hybrid heterostructures, with SrTiO3 as an intervening oxide insulator layer between the ferromagnet and the superconductor. Measurements above and below the superconducting transition temperature (TSC) of YBCO demonstrate a large modulation of magnetization in the ferromagnetic layer below the TSC of YBCO in these heterostructures. This work highlights a unique tunneling phenomenon between the epitaxial layers of an oxide superconductor (YBCO) and a magnetic layer (LCMO) through an insulating layer. Our work would inspire further investigations on the fundamental aspect of a long range order of the triplet spin-pairing in hybrid structures.

Superconductivity from fractionalized excitations in URu2Si2

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hsu, Chen-Hsuan; Chakravarty, Sudip

2014-10-01

An unconventional pairing mechanism in the heavy-fermion material URu2Si2 is studied. We propose a mixed singlet-triplet d-density wave to be the hidden-order state in URu2Si2. The exotic order is topologically nontrivial and supports a charge 2e skyrmionic spin texture, which is assumed to fractionalize into merons and antimerons at the deconfined quantum critical point. The interaction between these fractional particles results in a (pseudo)spin-singlet chiral d-wave superconducting state, which breaks time-reversal symmetry. Therefore, it is highly likely to produce a nonzero signal of the polar Kerr effect at the onset of the superconductivity, consistent with recent experiments. In addition, the nodal structures of the possible pairing functions in our model are consistent with the thermodynamic experiments in URu2Si2.

Controlling the superconducting transition by spin-orbit coupling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Banerjee, N.; Ouassou, J. A.; Zhu, Y.; Stelmashenko, N. A.; Linder, J.; Blamire, M. G.

2018-05-01

Whereas considerable evidence exists for the conversion of singlet Cooper pairs into triplet Cooper pairs in the presence of inhomogeneous magnetic fields, recent theoretical proposals have suggested an alternative way to exert control over triplet generation: intrinsic spin-orbit coupling in a homogeneous ferromagnet coupled to a superconductor. Here, we proximity couple Nb to an asymmetric Pt/Co/Pt trilayer, which acts as an effective spin-orbit-coupled ferromagnet owing to structural inversion asymmetry. Unconventional modulation of the superconducting critical temperature as a function of in-plane and out-of-plane applied magnetic fields suggests the presence of triplets that can be controlled by the magnetic orientation of a single homogeneous ferromagnet. Our studies demonstrate an active role of spin-orbit coupling in controlling the triplets, an important step towards the realization of novel superconducting spintronic devices.

2D barrier in a superconducting niobium square

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Joya, Miryam R., E-mail: mrinconj@unal.edu.co; Barba-ortega, J., E-mail: jjbarbao@unal.edu.co; Sardella, Edson, E-mail: edsonsdl@gmail.com

The presence of barriers changes the vortex structure in superconducting Nb square in presence of a uniform applied magnetic field. The Cooper pair configurations in a mesoscopics superconducting square of Nb with a barrier are calculated within the nonlinear Ginzburg Landau equations. We predict the nucleation of multi-vortex states into the sample and a soft entry of the magnetic field inside and around into the barrier. A novel and non-conventional vortex configurations occurs at determined magnetic field.

Stability of the Superconducting d-Wave Pairing Toward the Intersite Coulomb Repulsion in CuO_2 Plane

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Val'kov, V. V.; Dzebisashvili, D. M.; Korovushkin, M. M.; Barabanov, A. F.

2018-06-01

Taking into account the real crystalline structure of the CuO_2 plane and the strong spin-fermion coupling, we study the influence of the intersite Coulomb repulsion between holes on the Cooper instability of the spin-polaron quasiparticles in cuprate superconductors. The analysis shows that only the superconducting d-wave pairing is implemented in the whole region of doping, whereas the solutions of the self-consistent equations for the s-wave pairing are absent. It is shown that intersite Coulomb interaction V_1 between the holes located at the nearest oxygen ions does not affect the d-wave pairing, because its Fourier transform V_q vanishes in the kernel of the corresponding integral equation. The intersite Coulomb interaction V_2 of quasiparticles located at the next-nearest oxygen ions does not vanish in the integral equations, however, but it is also shown that the d-wave pairing is robust toward this interaction for physically reasonable values of V_2.

Stability of the Superconducting d-Wave Pairing Toward the Intersite Coulomb Repulsion in CuO_2 Plane

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Val'kov, V. V.; Dzebisashvili, D. M.; Korovushkin, M. M.; Barabanov, A. F.

2018-03-01

Taking into account the real crystalline structure of the CuO_2 plane and the strong spin-fermion coupling, we study the influence of the intersite Coulomb repulsion between holes on the Cooper instability of the spin-polaron quasiparticles in cuprate superconductors. The analysis shows that only the superconducting d-wave pairing is implemented in the whole region of doping, whereas the solutions of the self-consistent equations for the s-wave pairing are absent. It is shown that intersite Coulomb interaction V_1 between the holes located at the nearest oxygen ions does not affect the d-wave pairing, because its Fourier transform V_q vanishes in the kernel of the corresponding integral equation. The intersite Coulomb interaction V_2 of quasiparticles located at the next-nearest oxygen ions does not vanish in the integral equations, however, but it is also shown that the d-wave pairing is robust toward this interaction for physically reasonable values of V_2.

Wide applicability of high-Tc pairing originating from coexisting wide and incipient narrow bands in quasi-one-dimensional systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Matsumoto, Karin; Ogura, Daisuke; Kuroki, Kazuhiko

2018-01-01

We study superconductivity in the Hubbard model on various quasi-one-dimensional lattices with coexisting wide and narrow bands originating from multiple sites within a unit cell, where each site corresponds to a single orbital. The systems studied are the two-leg and three-leg ladders, the diamond chain, and the crisscross ladder. These one-dimensional lattices are weakly coupled to form two-dimensional (quasi-one-dimensional) ones, and the fluctuation exchange approximation is adopted to study spin-fluctuation-mediated superconductivity. When one of the bands is perfectly flat and the Fermi level intersecting the wide band is placed in the vicinity of, but not within, the flat band, superconductivity arising from the interband scattering processes is found to be strongly enhanced owing to the combination of the light electron mass of the wide band and the strong pairing interaction due to the large density of states of the flat band. Even when the narrow band has finite bandwidth, the pairing mechanism still works since the edge of the narrow band, due to its large density of states, plays the role of the flat band. The results indicate the wide applicability of the high-Tc pairing mechanism due to coexisting wide and "incipient" narrow bands in quasi-one-dimensional systems.

Concepts relating magnetic interactions, intertwined electronic orders, and strongly correlated superconductivity

PubMed Central

Davis, J. C. Séamus; Lee, Dung-Hai

2013-01-01

Unconventional superconductivity (SC) is said to occur when Cooper pair formation is dominated by repulsive electron–electron interactions, so that the symmetry of the pair wave function is other than an isotropic s-wave. The strong, on-site, repulsive electron–electron interactions that are the proximate cause of such SC are more typically drivers of commensurate magnetism. Indeed, it is the suppression of commensurate antiferromagnetism (AF) that usually allows this type of unconventional superconductivity to emerge. Importantly, however, intervening between these AF and SC phases, intertwined electronic ordered phases (IP) of an unexpected nature are frequently discovered. For this reason, it has been extremely difficult to distinguish the microscopic essence of the correlated superconductivity from the often spectacular phenomenology of the IPs. Here we introduce a model conceptual framework within which to understand the relationship between AF electron–electron interactions, IPs, and correlated SC. We demonstrate its effectiveness in simultaneously explaining the consequences of AF interactions for the copper-based, iron-based, and heavy-fermion superconductors, as well as for their quite distinct IPs. PMID:24114268

Weak-coupling superconductivity in a strongly correlated iron pnictide

PubMed Central

Charnukha, A.; Post, K. W.; Thirupathaiah, S.; Pröpper, D.; Wurmehl, S.; Roslova, M.; Morozov, I.; Büchner, B.; Yaresko, A. N.; Boris, A. V.; Borisenko, S. V.; Basov, D. N.

2016-01-01

Iron-based superconductors have been found to exhibit an intimate interplay of orbital, spin, and lattice degrees of freedom, dramatically affecting their low-energy electronic properties, including superconductivity. Albeit the precise pairing mechanism remains unidentified, several candidate interactions have been suggested to mediate the superconducting pairing, both in the orbital and in the spin channel. Here, we employ optical spectroscopy (OS), angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), ab initio band-structure, and Eliashberg calculations to show that nearly optimally doped NaFe0.978Co0.022As exhibits some of the strongest orbitally selective electronic correlations in the family of iron pnictides. Unexpectedly, we find that the mass enhancement of itinerant charge carriers in the strongly correlated band is dramatically reduced near the Γ point and attribute this effect to orbital mixing induced by pronounced spin-orbit coupling. Embracing the true band structure allows us to describe all low-energy electronic properties obtained in our experiments with remarkable consistency and demonstrate that superconductivity in this material is rather weak and mediated by spin fluctuations. PMID:26729630

Coherent optical excitations in superconducting qubit chain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ian, Hou; Liu, Yu-Xi

2012-06-01

In the recent years, the theories of quantum optics have been borrowed to study the flows of electron pairs and their interactions with the circuit photon in the superconducting qubit circuits. These studies bring about new theories of quantum optics, such as the tunable electromagnetically induced transparency effect, peculiar to the Cooper pairs in circuits. In this talk, we focus on a special type of superconducting qubit circuits: superconducting qubit chain (SQC), which comprises dozens of qubits linearly placed along a stripline resonator. Since the dimensions of the qubits and the stripline have made their interactions inhomogeneous, the SQC cannot be diagonalized using the usual Dicke model. We present a new theoretical method, the deformation-projection method, for the exact diagonalization of the collective excitations of the qubits. This method allows us to predict that these excitations emulate the behaviors of Wannier and Frenckel excitons in the solid-state systems. The spontaneous emissions from the individual qubits in SQC are relayed to their neighbors, eventually arriving at a coherent emission, known as superradiance. We present a quantum relay model, which is crucial to quantum information processing, based on this finding.

Disordered Kitaev chains with long-range pairing.

PubMed

Cai, Xiaoming

2017-03-22

We study the competition of disorder and superconductivity for a generalized Kitaev model in incommensurate potentials. The generalized Kitaev model describes one dimensional spinless fermions with long-range p-wave superconducting pairing, which decays with distance l as a power law  ∼[Formula: see text]. We focus on the transition from the topological superconducting phase to the topologically trivial Anderson localized phase, and effects of the exponent α on this phase transition. In the topological superconducting phase, for a system under open boundary condition the amplitude of zero-mode Majorana fermion has a hybrid exponential-algebraic decay as the distance increases from the edge. In the Anderson localized phase, some single-particle states remain critical for very strong disorders and the number of critical states increases as α decreases. In addition, except for critical disorders, the correlation function always has an exponential decay at the short range and an algebraic decay at the long range. Phase transition points are also numerically determined and the topological phase transition happens earlier at a smaller disorder strength for a system with smaller α.

Quantum Device Applications of Mesoscopic Superconductivity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hakonen, P. J.

2006-08-01

A brief account is given on the possibilities of mesoscopic superconductivity in low-noise amplifier and detector applications. In particular, three devices will be described: 1) Bloch oscillating transistor (BOT), 2) Inductively-read superconducting Cooper pair transistor (L-SET), and 3) Quantum capacitive phase detector (C-SET). The BOT is a low-noise current amplifier while the L-SET and C-SET act as ultra-sensitive charge and phase detectors, respectively. The basic operating principles and the main characteristics of these devices will be reviewed and discussed.

Microscopic model of superconductivity in carbon nanotubes.

PubMed

González, J

2002-02-18

We propose the model of a manifold of one-dimensional interacting electron systems to account for the superconductivity observed in ropes of nanotubes. We rely on the strong suppression of single-particle hopping between neighboring nanotubes in a disordered rope and conclude that the tunneling takes place in pairs of electrons, which are formed within each nanotube due to the existence of large superconducting correlations. Our estimate of the transition temperature is consistent with the values that have been measured experimentally in ropes with about 100 metallic nanotubes.

Evidence for Spin Singlet Pairing with Strong Uniaxial Anisotropy in URu2Si2 Using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hattori, T.; Sakai, H.; Tokunaga, Y.; Kambe, S.; Matsuda, T. D.; Haga, Y.

2018-01-01

In order to identify the spin contribution to superconducting pairing compatible with the so-called "hidden order", Si 29 nuclear magnetic resonance measurements have been performed using a high-quality single crystal of URu2 Si2 . A clear reduction of the Si 29 Knight shift in the superconducting state has been observed under a magnetic field applied along the crystalline c axis, corresponding to the magnetic easy axis. These results provide direct evidence for the formation of spin-singlet Cooper pairs. Consequently, results indicating a very tiny change of the in-plane Knight shift reported previously demonstrate extreme uniaxial anisotropy for the spin susceptibility in the hidden order state.

Effect of the pseudogap on the transition temperature in the cuprates and implications for its origin

DOE PAGES

Mishra, Vivek; Chatterjee, U.; Campuzano, J. C.; ...

2014-03-30

We present cuprates that possess a large pseudogap that spans much of their phase diagram. The origin of this pseudogap is as debated as the mechanism for high-temperature superconductivity. In one class of theories, the pseudogap arises from some instability not related to pairing, typically charge, spin or orbital current ordering. Evidence of this has come from a variety of measurements indicating symmetry breaking. On the other side are theories where the pseudogap is associated with pairing. This ranges from preformed pairs to resonating valence bond theories where spin singlets become charge coherent. Here, we study pairing in the cupratesmore » by constructing the pair vertex using spectral functions derived from angle-resolved photoemission data. Assuming that the pseudogap is not due to pairing, we find that the superconducting instability is strongly suppressed, in stark contrast to what is actually observed. We trace this suppression to the destruction of the BCS logarithmic singularity from a combination of the pseudogap and lifetime broadening. In conclusion, our findings strongly support those theories of the cuprates where the pseudogap is instead due to pairing.« less

Unconventional superconductivity in iron pnictides: Magnon mediated pairing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

kar, Raskesh; Paul, Bikash Chandra; Misra, Anirban

2018-02-01

We study the phenomenon of unconventional superconductivity in iron pnictides on the basis of localized-itinerant model. In this proposed model, superconductivity arises from the itinerant part of electrons, whereas antiferromagnetism arises from the localized part. The itinerant electrons move over the sea of localized electrons in antiferromagnetic alignment and interact with them resulting in excitation of magnons. We find that triplet pairing of itinerant electrons via magnons is possible in checkerboard antiferromagnetic spin configuration of the substances CaFe2As2 and BaFe2As2 in pure form for umklapp scattering with scattering wave vector Q =(1 , 1) , in the unit of π/a where a being one orthorhombic crystal parameter, which is the nesting vector between two Fermi surfaces. The interaction potential figured out in this way, increases with the decrease in nearest neighbour (NN) exchange couplings. Under ambient pressure, with stripe antiferromagnetic spin configuration, a very small value of coupling constant is obtained which does not give rise to superconductivity. The critical temperature of superconductivity of the substances CaFe2As2 and BaFe2As2 in higher pressure checkerboard antiferromagnetic spin configuration are found to be 12.12 K and 29.95 K respectively which are in agreement with the experimental results.

Nodeless pairing in superconducting copper-oxide monolayer films on Bi 2Sr 2CaCu 2O 8+δ

DOE PAGES

Zhong, Yong; Wang, Yang; Han, Sha; ...

2016-07-12

We report that the pairing mechanism of high-temperature superconductivity in cuprates remains the biggest unresolved mystery in condensed matter physics. To solve the problem, one of the most effective approaches is to investigate directly the superconducting CuO 2 layers. Here, by growing CuO 2 monolayer films on Bi 2Sr 2CaCu 2O 8+δ substrates, we identify two distinct and spatially separated energy gaps centered at the Fermi energy, a smaller U-like gap and a larger V-like gap on the films, and study their interactions with alien atoms by low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy. The newly discovered U-like gap exhibits strong phase coherencemore » and is immune to scattering by K, Cs and Ag atoms, suggesting its nature as a nodeless superconducting gap in the CuO 2 layers, whereas the V-like gap agrees with the well-known pseudogap state in the underdoped regime. In conclusion, our results support an s-wave superconductivity in Bi 2Sr 2CaCu 2O 8+δ, which, we propose, originates from the modulation-doping resultant two-dimensional hole liquid confined in the CuO 2 layers.« less

Nodeless pairing in superconducting copper-oxide monolayer films on Bi 2Sr 2CaCu 2O 8+δ

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zhong, Yong; Wang, Yang; Han, Sha

We report that the pairing mechanism of high-temperature superconductivity in cuprates remains the biggest unresolved mystery in condensed matter physics. To solve the problem, one of the most effective approaches is to investigate directly the superconducting CuO 2 layers. Here, by growing CuO 2 monolayer films on Bi 2Sr 2CaCu 2O 8+δ substrates, we identify two distinct and spatially separated energy gaps centered at the Fermi energy, a smaller U-like gap and a larger V-like gap on the films, and study their interactions with alien atoms by low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy. The newly discovered U-like gap exhibits strong phase coherencemore » and is immune to scattering by K, Cs and Ag atoms, suggesting its nature as a nodeless superconducting gap in the CuO 2 layers, whereas the V-like gap agrees with the well-known pseudogap state in the underdoped regime. In conclusion, our results support an s-wave superconductivity in Bi 2Sr 2CaCu 2O 8+δ, which, we propose, originates from the modulation-doping resultant two-dimensional hole liquid confined in the CuO 2 layers.« less

Superconductivity in compensated and uncompensated semiconductors.

PubMed

Yanase, Youichi; Yorozu, Naoyuki

2008-12-01

We investigate the localization and superconductivity in heavily doped semiconductors. The crossover from the superconductivity in the host band to that in the impurity band is described on the basis of the disordered three-dimensional attractive Hubbard model for binary alloys. The microscopic inhomogeneity and the thermal superconducting fluctuation are taken into account using the self-consistent 1-loop order theory. The superconductor-insulator transition accompanies the crossover from the host band to the impurity band. We point out an enhancement of the critical temperature T c around the crossover. Further localization of electron wave functions leads to the localization of Cooper pairs and induces the pseudogap. We find that both the doping compensation by additional donors and the carrier increase by additional acceptors suppress the superconductivity. A theoretical interpretation is proposed for the superconductivity in the boron-doped diamond, SiC, and Si.

Superconductivity in compensated and uncompensated semiconductors

PubMed Central

Yanase, Youichi; Yorozu, Naoyuki

2008-01-01

We investigate the localization and superconductivity in heavily doped semiconductors. The crossover from the superconductivity in the host band to that in the impurity band is described on the basis of the disordered three-dimensional attractive Hubbard model for binary alloys. The microscopic inhomogeneity and the thermal superconducting fluctuation are taken into account using the self-consistent 1-loop order theory. The superconductor-insulator transition accompanies the crossover from the host band to the impurity band. We point out an enhancement of the critical temperature Tc around the crossover. Further localization of electron wave functions leads to the localization of Cooper pairs and induces the pseudogap. We find that both the doping compensation by additional donors and the carrier increase by additional acceptors suppress the superconductivity. A theoretical interpretation is proposed for the superconductivity in the boron-doped diamond, SiC, and Si. PMID:27878018

Theory of parametrically amplified electron-phonon superconductivity

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Babadi, Mehrtash; Knap, Michael; Martin, Ivar

2017-07-01

Ultrafast optical manipulation of ordered phases in strongly correlated materials is a topic of significant theoretical, experimental, and technological interest. Inspired by a recent experiment on light-induced superconductivity in fullerenes [M. Mitrano et al., Nature (London) 530, 461 (2016)], we develop a comprehensive theory of light-induced superconductivity in driven electron-phonon systemswith lattice nonlinearities. In analogy with the operation of parametric amplifiers, we show how the interplay between the external drive and lattice nonlinearities lead to significantly enhanced effective electron-phonon couplings. We provide a detailed and unbiased study of the nonequilibrium dynamics of the driven system using the real-time Green's functionmore » technique. To this end, we develop a Floquet generalization of the Migdal-Eliashberg theory and derive a numerically tractable set of quantum Floquet-Boltzmann kinetic equations for the coupled electron-phonon system. We study the role of parametric phonon generation and electronic heating in destroying the transient superconducting state. Finally, we predict the transient formation of electronic Floquet bands in time-and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy experiments as a consequence of the proposed mechanism.« less

Coherent vs. incoherent pairing in 2D systems near magnetic instability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abanov, Ar.; Chubukov, A. V.; Finkel'stein, A. M.

2001-05-01

We study the superconductivity in 2D fermionic systems near antiferromagnetic instability, assuming that the pairing is mediated by spin fluctuations. This pairing involves fully incoherent fermions and diffusive spin excitations. We show that the competition between fermionic incoherence and strong pairing interaction yields the pairing instability temperature Tins which increases and saturates as the magnetic correlation length ξ → ∞. We argue that in this quantum-critical regime the pairing problem is qualitatively different from the BCS one.

Passive microwave device applications of high T(c) superconducting thin films

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lyons, W. G.; Withers, R. S.

1990-11-01

Superconductors with a transition temperature T(c) from 40 K to 125 K are analyzed, with focus placed on their behavior around the boiling point of liquid nitrogen (77 K). It is shown that high-T(c) superconductors are similar to conventional type-II superconductors with paired holes instead of paired electrons. The nature of the electromagnetic response of a superconductor is illustrated with a two-fluid model, and surface resistance and conductor loss are assessed. Several microwave applications of high-T(c) superconductors are outlined including a six-pole dielectric loaded cavity filter used in multiplexers on current communication satellites and a four-pole superconducting filter. An implementation of a chirp filter using superconducting striplines with a cascaded array of backward-wave couplers to achieve a downchirp is presented as well as a 60-GHz phased antenna utilizing microstrip lines in the feed network.

Superconductor-insulator transition in a stripe-ordered cuprate

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tranquada, John; Homes, C.; Gu, G. D.; Li, Q.; Huecker, M.

We reconsider the case of La2-xBaxCuO4 with x = 1 / 8 , where spin-stripe order and 2D superconducting correlations develop simultaneously at 40 K. The thermal evolution of the in-plane optical reflectivity suggests the development of a Josephson plasma resonance (JPR) between charge stripes, by analogy with the JPR seen in c-axis reflectivity in the superconducting state of Josephson-coupled CuO2 planes. At low-temperature, when the superconductivity is suppressed by a magnetic field, the resistivity exhibits insulating character. We interpret this as suppression of the Josephson coupling between pair correlations in neighboring charge stripes, with single-particle transport suppressed by the surviving spin-stripe order. To obtain direct evidence that the high-field insulator involves hole pairs localized to 1D stripes will require further experiments. Work at BNL supported by Office of Basic Energy Sciences, US DOE, under Contract No. DE-SC0012704.

Theory of the Knight Shift and Flux Quantization in Superconductors

DOE R&D Accomplishments Database

Cooper, L. N.; Lee, H. J.; Schwartz, B. B.; Silvert, W.

1962-05-01

Consequences of a generalization of the theory of superconductivity that yields a finite Knight shift are presented. In this theory, by introducing an electron-electron interaction that is not spatially invariant, the pairing of electrons with varying total momentum is made possible. An expression for Xs (the spin susceptibility in the superconducting state) is derived. In general Xs is smaller than Xn, but is not necessarily zero. The precise magnitude of Xs will vary from sample to sample and will depend on the nonuniformity of the samples. There should be no marked size dependence and no marked dependence on the strength of the magnetic field; this is in accord with observation. The basic superconducting properties are retained, but there are modifications in the various electromagnetic and thermal properties since the electrons paired are not time sequences of this generalized theory on flux quantization arguments are presented.(auth)

Bosonic Confinement and Coherence in Disordered Nanodiamond Arrays.

PubMed

Zhang, Gufei; Samuely, Tomas; Du, Hongchu; Xu, Zheng; Liu, Liwang; Onufriienko, Oleksandr; May, Paul W; Vanacken, Johan; Szabó, Pavol; Kačmarčík, Jozef; Yuan, Haifeng; Samuely, Peter; Dunin-Borkowski, Rafal E; Hofkens, Johan; Moshchalkov, Victor V

2017-11-28

In the presence of disorder, superconductivity exhibits short-range characteristics linked to localized Cooper pairs which are responsible for anomalous phase transitions and the emergence of quantum states such as the bosonic insulating state. Complementary to well-studied homogeneously disordered superconductors, superconductor-normal hybrid arrays provide tunable realizations of the degree of granular disorder for studying anomalous quantum phase transitions. Here, we investigate the superconductor-bosonic dirty metal transition in disordered nanodiamond arrays as a function of the dispersion of intergrain spacing, which ranges from angstroms to micrometers. By monitoring the evolved superconducting gaps and diminished coherence peaks in the single-quasiparticle density of states, we link the destruction of the superconducting state and the emergence of bosonic dirty metallic state to breaking of the global phase coherence and persistence of the localized Cooper pairs. The observed resistive bosonic phase transitions are well modeled using a series-parallel circuit in the framework of bosonic confinement and coherence.

The happy marriage between electron-phonon superconductivity and Mott physics in Cs3C60: A first-principle phase diagram

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Capone, Massimo; Nomura, Yusuke; Sakai, Shiro; Giovannetti, Gianluca; Arita, Ryotaro

The phase diagram of doped fullerides like Cs3C60 as a function of the spacing between fullerene molecules is characterized by a first-order transition between a Mott insulator and an s-wave superconductor with a dome-shaped behavior of the critical temperature. By means of an ab-initio modeling of the bandstructure, the electron-phonon interaction and the interaction parameter and a Dynamical Mean-Field Theory solution, we reproduce the phase diagram and demonstrate that phonon superconductivity benefits from strong correlations confirming earlier model predictions. The role of correlations is manifest also in infrared measurements carried out by L. Baldassarre. The superconducting phase shares many similarities with ''exotic'' superconductors with electronic pairing, suggesting that the anomalies in the ''normal'' state, rather than the pairing glue, can be the real common element unifying a wide family of strongly correlated superconductors including cuprates and iron superconductors

Superconducting Polarons and Bipolarons

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alexandrov, A. S.

The seminal work by Bardeen, Cooper and Schrieffer (BCS) extended further by Eliashberg to the intermediate coupling regime solved one of the major scientific problems of Condensed Matter Physics in the last century. The BCS theory provides qualitative and in many cases quantitative descriptions of low-temperature superconducting metals and their alloys, and some novel high-temperature superconductors like magnesium diboride. The theory has been extended by us to the strong-coupling regime where carriers are small lattice polarons and bipolarons. Here I review the multi-polaron strong-coupling theory of superconductivity. Attractive electron correlations, prerequisite to any superconductivity, are caused by an almost unretarded electron-phonon (e-ph) interaction sufficient to overcome the direct Coulomb repulsion in this regime. Low energy physics is that of small polarons and bipolarons, which are real-space electron (hole) pairs dressed by phonons. They are itinerant quasiparticles existing in the Bloch states attemperatures below the characteristic phonon frequency. Since there is almost no retardation (i.e. no Tolmachev-Morel-Anderson logarithm) reducing the Coulomb repulsion, e-ph interactions should be relatively strong to overcome the direct Coulomb repulsion, so carriers mustbe polaronic to form pairs in novel superconductors. I identify the long-range Fröhlich electron-phonon interaction as the most essential for pairing in superconducting cuprates. A number of key observations have been predicted or explained with polarons and bipolarons including unusual isotope effects and upper critical fields, normal state (pseudo)gaps and kinetic properties, normal state diamagnetism, and giant proximity effects. These and many other observations provide strong evidence for a novel state of electronic matter in layered cuprates, which is a charged Bose-liquid of small mobile bipolarons.

Survival probability of an edge Majorana in a one-dimensional p-wave superconducting chain under sudden quenching of parameters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rajak, Atanu; Dutta, Amit

2014-04-01

We consider the temporal evolution of a zero-energy edge Majorana of a spinless p-wave superconducting chain following a sudden change of a parameter of the Hamiltonian. Starting from one of the topological phases that has an edge Majorana, the system is suddenly driven to the other topological phase or to the (topologically) trivial phases and to the quantum critical points (QCPs) separating these phases. The survival probability of the initial edge Majorana as a function of time is studied following the quench. Interestingly when the chain is quenched to the QCP, we find a nearly perfect oscillation of the survival probability, indicating that the Majorana travels back and forth between two ends, with a time period that scales with the system size. We also generalize to the situation when there is a next-nearest-neighbor hopping in a superconducting chain and there results in a pair of edge Majorana at each end of the chain in the topological phase. We show that the frequency of oscillation of the survival probability gets doubled in this case. We also perform an instantaneous quenching of the Hamiltonian (with two Majorana modes at each end of the chain) to an another Hamiltonian which has only one Majorana mode in equilibrium; the MSP shows oscillations as a function of time with a noticeable decay in the amplitude. On the other hand for a quenching which is reverse to the previous one, the MSP decays rapidly and stays close to zero with fluctuations in amplitude.

New superconducting cyclotron driven scanning proton therapy systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Klein, Hans-Udo; Baumgarten, Christian; Geisler, Andreas; Heese, Jürgen; Hobl, Achim; Krischel, Detlef; Schillo, Michael; Schmidt, Stefan; Timmer, Jan

2005-12-01

Since one and a half decades ACCEL is investing in development and engineering of state of the art particle-therapy systems. A new medical superconducting 250 MeV proton cyclotron with special focus on the present and future beam requirements of fast scanning treatment systems has been designed. The first new ACCEL medical proton cyclotron is under commissioning at PSI for their PROSCAN proton therapy facility having undergone successful factory tests especially of the closed loop cryomagnetic system. The second cyclotron is part of ACCEL's integrated proton therapy system for Europe's first clinical center, RPTC in Munich. The cyclotron, the energy selection system, the beamline as well as the four gantries and patient positioners have been installed. The scanning system and major parts of the control software have already been tested. We will report on the concept of ACCEL's superconducting cyclotron driven scanning proton therapy systems and the current status of the commissioning work at PSI and RPTC.

Coupled bipolarons and optical phonons as a model for high-Tc superconductors

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kasperczyk, J.

1991-01-01

The coherence length of the new high-temperature superconductors reaches a small value which is comparable to the dimensions of the unit cell of the compound. This means that a pair consists of two holes occupying the same site or two adjacent sites. Such a situation is described by a model of the local-pairs (bipolarons). The origin of local-pairs may come not only from strong enough electron or hole-phonon interaction but also from other interactions. Independent of the specific nature of such local-pairs, they can undergo a Bose-like condensation to the superconducting state at a critical temperature which is usually much lower than the temperature of the pair formation. An interplay of ferroelectric and superconducting properties is considered within the model of hole-like local-pairs interacting with optical phonons. Therefore, researchers extend the usual local-pair Hamiltonian by including a direct interaction between the local-pairs and the optical phonons. These optical phonons are known to play an important role in the ferroelectric transition and they transform into an additional pseudo-acoustic branch at the ferroelectric critical temperature. (This is associated with nonzero electric polarization due to the existence of two separate lattices composed of negative and positive ions, respectively.)

Correlation between superconductivity and bond angle of CrAs chain in non-centrosymmetric compounds A2Cr3As3 (A = K, Rb)

PubMed Central

Wang, Zhe; Yi, Wei; Wu, Qi; Sidorov, Vladimir A.; Bao, Jinke; Tang, Zhangtu; Guo, Jing; Zhou, Yazhou; Zhang, Shan; Li, Hang; Shi, Youguo; Wu, Xianxin; Zhang, Ling; Yang, Ke; Li, Aiguo; Cao, Guanghan; Hu, Jiangping; Sun, Liling; Zhao, Zhongxian

2016-01-01

Non-centrosymmetric superconductors, whose crystal structure is absent of inversion symmetry, have recently received special attentions due to the expectation of unconventional pairings and exotic physics associated with such pairings. The newly discovered superconductors A2Cr3As3 (A = K, Rb), featured by the quasi-one dimensional structure with conducting CrAs chains, belongs to such kind of superconductor. In this study, we are the first to report the finding that superconductivity of A2Cr3As3 (A = K, Rb) has a positive correlation with the extent of non-centrosymmetry. Our in-situ high pressure ac susceptibility and synchrotron x-ray diffraction measurements reveal that the larger bond angle of As-Cr-As (defined as α) in the CrAs chains can be taken as a key factor controlling superconductivity. While the smaller bond angle (defined as β) and the distance between the CrAs chains also affect the superconductivity due to their structural connections with the α angle. We find that the larger value of α-β, which is associated with the extent of the non-centrosymmetry of the lattice structure, is in favor of superconductivity. These results are expected to shed a new light on the underlying mechanism of the superconductivity in these Q1D superconductors and also to provide new perspective in understanding other non-centrosymmetric superconductors. PMID:27886268

Correlation between superconductivity and bond angle of CrAs chain in non-centrosymmetric compounds A2Cr3As3 (A = K, Rb).

PubMed

Wang, Zhe; Yi, Wei; Wu, Qi; Sidorov, Vladimir A; Bao, Jinke; Tang, Zhangtu; Guo, Jing; Zhou, Yazhou; Zhang, Shan; Li, Hang; Shi, Youguo; Wu, Xianxin; Zhang, Ling; Yang, Ke; Li, Aiguo; Cao, Guanghan; Hu, Jiangping; Sun, Liling; Zhao, Zhongxian

2016-11-25

Non-centrosymmetric superconductors, whose crystal structure is absent of inversion symmetry, have recently received special attentions due to the expectation of unconventional pairings and exotic physics associated with such pairings. The newly discovered superconductors A 2 Cr 3 As 3 (A = K, Rb), featured by the quasi-one dimensional structure with conducting CrAs chains, belongs to such kind of superconductor. In this study, we are the first to report the finding that superconductivity of A 2 Cr 3 As 3 (A = K, Rb) has a positive correlation with the extent of non-centrosymmetry. Our in-situ high pressure ac susceptibility and synchrotron x-ray diffraction measurements reveal that the larger bond angle of As-Cr-As (defined as α) in the CrAs chains can be taken as a key factor controlling superconductivity. While the smaller bond angle (defined as β) and the distance between the CrAs chains also affect the superconductivity due to their structural connections with the α angle. We find that the larger value of α-β, which is associated with the extent of the non-centrosymmetry of the lattice structure, is in favor of superconductivity. These results are expected to shed a new light on the underlying mechanism of the superconductivity in these Q1D superconductors and also to provide new perspective in understanding other non-centrosymmetric superconductors.

Decay of superconducting correlations for gauged electrons in dimensions D ≤ 4

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tada, Yasuhiro; Koma, Tohru

2018-03-01

We study lattice superconductors coupled to gauge fields, such as an attractive Hubbard model in electromagnetic fields, with a standard gauge fixing. We prove upper bounds for a two-point Cooper pair correlation at finite temperatures in spatial dimensions D ≤ 4. The upper bounds decay exponentially in three dimensions and by power law in four dimensions. These imply the absence of the superconducting long-range order for the Cooper pair amplitude as a consequence of fluctuations of the gauge fields. Since our results hold for the gauge fixing Hamiltonian, they cannot be obtained as a corollary of Elitzur's theorem.

Theory of superconductivity with non-Hermitian and parity-time reversal symmetric Cooper pairing symmetry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ghatak, Ananya; Das, Tanmoy

2018-01-01

Recently developed parity (P ) and time-reversal (T ) symmetric non-Hermitian systems govern a rich variety of new and characteristically distinct physical properties, which may or may not have a direct analog in their Hermitian counterparts. We study here a non-Hermitian, PT -symmetric superconducting Hamiltonian that possesses a real quasiparticle spectrum in the PT -unbroken region of the Brillouin zone. Within a single-band mean-field theory, we find that real quasiparticle energies are possible when the superconducting order parameter itself is either Hermitian or anti-Hermitian. Within the corresponding Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) theory, we find that several properties are characteristically distinct and novel in the non-Hermitian pairing case than its Hermitian counterpart. One of our significant findings is that while a Hermitian superconductor gives a second-order phase transition, the non-Hermitian one produces a robust first-order phase transition. The corresponding thermodynamic properties and the Meissner effect are also modified accordingly. Finally, we discuss how such a PT -symmetric pairing can emerge from an antisymmetric potential, such as the Dzyloshinskii-Moriya interaction, but with an external bath, or complex potential, among others.

Dynamical onset of superconductivity and retention of magnetic fields in cooling neutron stars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ho, Wynn C. G.; Andersson, Nils; Graber, Vanessa

2017-12-01

A superconductor of paired protons is thought to form in the core of neutron stars soon after their birth. Minimum energy conditions suggest magnetic flux is expelled from the superconducting region due to the Meissner effect, such that the neutron star core is largely devoid of magnetic fields for some nuclear equation of state and proton pairing models. We show via neutron star cooling simulations that the superconducting region expands faster than flux is expected to be expelled because cooling timescales are much shorter than timescales of magnetic field diffusion. Thus magnetic fields remain in the bulk of the neutron star core for at least 106-107yr . We estimate the size of flux free regions at 107yr to be ≲100 m for a magnetic field of 1011G and possibly smaller for stronger field strengths. For proton pairing models that are narrow, magnetic flux may be completely expelled from a thin shell of approximately the above size after 105yr . This shell may insulate lower conductivity outer layers, where magnetic fields can diffuse and decay faster, from fields maintained in the highly conducting deep core.

Spin-selective coupling to Majorana zero modes in mixed singlet and triplet superconducting nanowires

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Paul, Ganesh C.; Saha, Arijit; Das, Sourin

2018-05-01

We theoretically investigate the transport properties of a quasi-one-dimensional ferromagnet-superconductor junction where the superconductor consists of mixed singlet and triplet pairings. We show that the relative orientation of the Stoner field (h ˜) in the ferromagnetic lead and the d vector of the superconductor acts like a on-off switch for the zero bias conductance of the device. In the regime, where triplet pairing amplitude dominates over the singlet counterpart (topological phase), a pair of Majorana zero modes appear at each end of the superconducting part of the nanowire. When h ˜ is parallel or antiparallel to the d vector, transport gets completely blocked due to blockage in pairing while, when h ˜ and d are perpendicular to each other, the zero energy two terminal differential conductance spectra exhibits sharp transition from 4 e2/h to 2 e2/h as the magnetization strength in the lead becomes larger than the chemical potential indicating the spin-selective coupling of a pair of Majorana zero modes to the lead.

Topological Crystalline Superconductivity in Locally Noncentrosymmetric Multilayer Superconductors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yoshida, Tomohiro; Sigrist, Manfred; Yanase, Youichi

2015-07-01

Topological crystalline superconductivity in locally noncentrosymmetric multilayer superconductors (SCs) is proposed. We study the odd-parity pair-density wave (PDW) state induced by the spin-singlet pairing interaction through the spin-orbit coupling. It is shown that the PDW state is a topological crystalline SC protected by a mirror symmetry, although it is topologically trivial according to the classification based on the standard topological periodic table. The topological property of the mirror subsectors is intuitively explained by adiabatically changing the Bogoliubov-de Gennes Hamiltonian. A subsector of the bilayer PDW state reduces to the two-dimensional noncentrosymmetric SC, while a subsector of the trilayer PDW state is topologically equivalent to the spinless p -wave SC. Chiral Majorana edge modes in trilayers can be realized without Cooper pairs in the spin-triplet channel and chemical potential tuning.

Topological Crystalline Superconductivity in Locally Noncentrosymmetric Multilayer Superconductors.

PubMed

Yoshida, Tomohiro; Sigrist, Manfred; Yanase, Youichi

2015-07-10

Topological crystalline superconductivity in locally noncentrosymmetric multilayer superconductors (SCs) is proposed. We study the odd-parity pair-density wave (PDW) state induced by the spin-singlet pairing interaction through the spin-orbit coupling. It is shown that the PDW state is a topological crystalline SC protected by a mirror symmetry, although it is topologically trivial according to the classification based on the standard topological periodic table. The topological property of the mirror subsectors is intuitively explained by adiabatically changing the Bogoliubov-de Gennes Hamiltonian. A subsector of the bilayer PDW state reduces to the two-dimensional noncentrosymmetric SC, while a subsector of the trilayer PDW state is topologically equivalent to the spinless p-wave SC. Chiral Majorana edge modes in trilayers can be realized without Cooper pairs in the spin-triplet channel and chemical potential tuning.

Stabilizing Rabi oscillation of a charge qubit via the atomic clock technique

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, Deshui; Landra, Alessandro; Kwek, Leong Chuan; Amico, Luigi; Dumke, Rainer

2018-02-01

We propose a superconducting circuit-atom hybrid, where the Rabi oscillation of single excess Cooper pair in the island is stabilized via the common atomic clock technique. The noise in the superconducting circuit is mapped onto the voltage source which biases the Cooper-pair box via an inductor and a gate capacitor. The fast fluctuations of the gate charge are significantly suppressed by an inductor-capacitor resonator, leading to a long-relaxation-time Rabi oscillation. More importantly, the residual low-frequency fluctuations are further reduced by using the general feedback-control method, in which the voltage bias is stabilized via continuously measuring the dc-Stark-shift-induced atomic Ramsey signal. The stability and coherence time of the resulting charge-qubit Rabi oscillation are both enhanced. The principal structure of this Cooper-pair-box oscillator is studied in detail.

Power supply system for the superconducting outsert of the CHMFL hybrid magnet

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fang, Z.; Zhu, J.; Chen, W.; Jiang, D.; Huang, P.; Chen, Z.; Tan, Y.; Kuang, G.

2017-12-01

The construction of a new hybrid magnet, consisting of a 11 T superconducting outsert and a 34 T resistive insert magnet, has been finished at the Chinese High Magnetic Field Laboratory (CHMFL) in Hefei. With a room temperature bore of 800 mm in diameter, the hybrid magnet superconducting outsert is composed of four separate Nb3Sn-based Cable-in-Conduit Conductor (CICC) coils electrically connected in series and powered by a single power supply system. The power supply system for the superconducting outsert consists of a 16 kA DC power supply, a quench protection system, a pair of 16 kA High Temperature Superconducting (HTS) current leads, and two Low Temperature Superconducting bus-lines. The design and manufacturing of the power supply system have been completed at the CHMFL. This paper describes the design features of the power supply system as well as the current fabrication condition of its main components.

Superconductivity and Competing Ordered Phase in RuPn (Pn = As, P)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hirai, Daigorou; Takayama, Tomohiro; Hashizume, Daisuke; Yamamoto, Ayako; Takagi, Hidenori

2011-03-01

Unconventional superconductivity likely manifests itself when some competing electronic phases are suppressed down to zero temperature such as cuprates and iron-pnictide superconductors. Therefore, the correlated metallic state neighboring a competing electronic ordering can be a promising playground for unconventional superconductivity. Here we report superconductivity emerging adjacent to electronically ordered phases of RuPn (Pn = As, P). We found that RuAs(P) exhibits phase transitions at 240 (265) K, which is discerned as a drop of magnetic susceptibility or a resistivity upturn. Such anomalies can be suppressed by substituting Rh to the Ru site. Accompanied by the disappearance of the electronic order, superconductivity was found to emerge below 1.8 K and 3.8 K for RuAs and RuP, respectively. The superconductivity in Rh substituted RuPn, which neighbors a competing electronic order, might exhibit an exotic pairing state as seen in the unconventional superconductors known to date.

RbEu (Fe1-xNix) 4As4 : From a ferromagnetic superconductor to a superconducting ferromagnet

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Yi; Liu, Ya-Bin; Yu, Ya-Long; Tao, Qian; Feng, Chun-Mu; Cao, Guang-Han

2017-12-01

The intrinsically hole-doped RbEuFe4As4 exhibits bulk superconductivity at Tsc=36.5 K and ferromagnetic ordering in the Eu sublattice at Tm=15 K. Here we present a hole-compensation study by introducing extra itinerant electrons via a Ni substitution in the ferromagnetic superconductor RbEuFe4As4 with Tsc>Tm . With the Ni doping, Tsc decreases rapidly, and the Eu-spin ferromagnetism and its Tm remain unchanged. Consequently, the system RbEu (Fe1-xNix) 4As4 transforms into a superconducting ferromagnet with Tm>Tsc for 0.07 ≤x ≤0.08 . The occurrence of superconducting ferromagnets is attributed to the decoupling between Eu2 + spins and superconducting Cooper pairs. The superconducting and magnetic phase diagram is established, which additionally includes a recovered yet suppressed spin-density-wave state.

The role of local repulsion in superconductivity in the Hubbard-Holstein model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lin, Chungwei; Wang, Bingnan; Teo, Koon Hoo

2017-01-01

We examine the superconducting solution in the Hubbard-Holstein model using Dynamical Mean Field Theory. The Holstein term introduces the site-independent Boson fields coupling to local electron density, and has two competing influences on superconductivity: The Boson field mediates the effective electron-electron attraction, which is essential for the S-wave electron pairing; the same coupling to the Boson fields also induces the polaron effect, which makes the system less metallic and thus suppresses superconductivity. The Hubbard term introduces an energy penalty U when two electrons occupy the same site, which is expected to suppress superconductivity. By solving the Hubbard-Holstein model using Dynamical Mean Field theory, we find that the Hubbard U can be beneficial to superconductivity under some circumstances. In particular, we demonstrate that when the Boson energy Ω is small, a weak local repulsion actually stabilizesthe S-wave superconducting state. This behavior can be understood as an interplay between superconductivity, the polaron effect, and the on-site repulsion: As the polaron effect is strong and suppresses superconductivity in the small Ω regime, the weak on-site repulsion reduces the polaron effect and effectively enhances superconductivity. Our calculation elucidates the role of local repulsion in the conventional S-wave superconductors.

Nonequilibrium enhancement of Cooper pairing in cold fermion systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Robertson, Andrew; Galitski, Victor M.

2009-12-15

Nonequilibrium stimulation of superfluidity in trapped Fermi gases is discussed by analogy to the work of Eliashberg [Nonequilibrium Superconductivity, edited by D. N. Langenberg and A. I. Larkin (North-Holland, New York, 1986)] on the microwave enhancement of superconductivity. Optical excitation of the fermions balanced by heat loss due to thermal contact with a boson bath and/or evaporative cooling enables stationary nonequilibrium states to exist. Such a state manifests as a shift of the quasiparticle spectrum to higher energies and this effectively raises the pairing transition temperature. As an illustration, we calculate the effective enhancement of Cooper pairing and superfluidity inmore » both the normal and superfluid phases for a mixture of {sup 87}Rb and {sup 6}Li in the limit of small departure from equilibrium. It is argued that in experiment the desirable effect is not limited to such small perturbations and the effective enhancement of the pairing temperature may be quite large.« less

Correlation effects in superconducting quantum dot systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pokorný, Vladislav; Žonda, Martin

2018-05-01

We study the effect of electron correlations on a system consisting of a single-level quantum dot with local Coulomb interaction attached to two superconducting leads. We use the single-impurity Anderson model with BCS superconducting baths to study the interplay between the proximity induced electron pairing and the local Coulomb interaction. We show how to solve the model using the continuous-time hybridization-expansion quantum Monte Carlo method. The results obtained for experimentally relevant parameters are compared with results of self-consistent second order perturbation theory as well as with the numerical renormalization group method.

Superconductivity at 7.4 K in few layer graphene by Li-intercalation.

PubMed

Tiwari, Anand P; Shin, Soohyeon; Hwang, Eunhee; Jung, Soon-Gil; Park, Tuson; Lee, Hyoyoung

2017-11-08

Superconductivity in graphene has been highly sought after for its promise in various device applications and for general scientific interest. Ironically, the simple electronic structure of graphene, which is responsible for novel quantum phenomena, hinders the emergence of superconductivity. Theory predicts that doping the surface of the graphene effectively alters the electronic structure, thus promoting propensity towards Cooper pair instability (Profeta et al (2012) Nat. Phys. 8 131-4; Nandkishore et al (2012) Nat. Phys. 8 158-63) [1, 2]. Here we report the emergence of superconductivity at 7.4 K in Li-intercalated few-layer-graphene (FLG). The absence of superconductivity in 3D Li-doped graphite underlines that superconductivity in Li-FLG arises from the novel electronic properties of the 2D graphene layer. These results are expected to guide future research on graphene-based superconductivity, both in theory and experiments. In addition, easy control of the Li-doping process holds promise for various device applications.

Superconductivity in the vicinity of antiferromagnetic order in CrAs.

PubMed

Wu, Wei; Cheng, Jinguang; Matsubayashi, Kazuyuki; Kong, Panpan; Lin, Fukun; Jin, Changqing; Wang, Nanlin; Uwatoko, Yoshiya; Luo, Jianlin

2014-11-19

One of the common features of unconventional superconducting systems such as the heavy-fermion, high transition-temperature cuprate and iron-pnictide superconductors is that the superconductivity emerges in the vicinity of long-range antiferromagnetically ordered state. In addition to doping charge carriers, the application of external pressure is an effective and clean approach to induce unconventional superconductivity near a magnetic quantum critical point. Here we report on the discovery of superconductivity on the verge of antiferromagnetic order in CrAs via the application of external pressure. Bulk superconductivity with Tc≈2 K emerges at the critical pressure Pc≈8 kbar, where the first-order antiferromagnetic transition at T(N)≈265 K under ambient pressure is completely suppressed. The close proximity of superconductivity to an antiferromagnetic order suggests an unconventional pairing mechanism for CrAs. The present finding opens a new avenue for searching novel superconductors in the Cr and other transition metal-based systems.

TRILEX and G W +EDMFT approach to d -wave superconductivity in the Hubbard model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vučičević, J.; Ayral, T.; Parcollet, O.

2017-09-01

We generalize the recently introduced TRILEX approach (TRiply irreducible local EXpansion) to superconducting phases. The method treats simultaneously Mott and spin-fluctuation physics using an Eliashberg theory supplemented by local vertex corrections determined by a self-consistent quantum impurity model. We show that, in the two-dimensional Hubbard model, at strong coupling, TRILEX yields a d -wave superconducting dome as a function of doping. Contrary to the standard cluster dynamical mean field theory (DMFT) approaches, TRILEX can capture d -wave pairing using only a single-site effective impurity model. We also systematically explore the dependence of the superconducting temperature on the bare dispersion at weak coupling, which shows a clear link between strong antiferromagnetic (AF) correlations and the onset of superconductivity. We identify a combination of hopping amplitudes particularly favorable to superconductivity at intermediate doping. Finally, we study within G W +EDMFT the low-temperature d -wave superconducting phase at strong coupling in a region of parameter space with reduced AF fluctuations.

Superconducting matrix fault current limiter with current-driven trigger mechanism

DOEpatents

Yuan; Xing

2008-04-15

A modular and scalable Matrix-type Fault Current Limiter (MFCL) that functions as a "variable impedance" device in an electric power network, using components made of superconducting and non-superconducting electrically conductive materials. An inductor is connected in series with the trigger superconductor in the trigger matrix and physically surrounds the superconductor. The current surge during a fault will generate a trigger magnetic field in the series inductor to cause fast and uniform quenching of the trigger superconductor to significantly reduce burnout risk due to superconductor material non-uniformity.

Effects of Co and Mn doping in K0.8Fe2-ySe2 revisited.

PubMed

Zhou, Tingting; Chen, Xiaolong; Guo, Jiangang; Jin, Shifeng; Wang, Gang; Lai, Xiaofang; Ying, Tianping; Zhang, Han; Shen, Shijie; Wang, Shunchong; Zhu, Kaixing

2013-07-10

Accumulated evidence indicates that phase separation occurs in potassium intercalated iron selenides, a superconducting phase coexisting with the antiferromagnetic phase K2Fe4Se5, the so-called '245 phase'. Here, we report a comparative study of substitution effects by Co and Mn for Fe sites in K0.8Fe2-ySe2 within the phase separation scenario. Our results demonstrate that Co and Mn dopants have distinct differences in occupancy and hence in the suppression mechanism of superconductivity upon doping of Fe sites. In K0.8Fe2-xCoxSe2, Co prefers to occupy the lattice of the superconducting phase and suppresses superconductivity very quickly, obeying the magnetic pair-breaking mechanism or the collapse of the Fermi surface nesting mechanism. In contrast, in K0.8Fe1.7-xMnxSe2, Mn shows no preferential occupancy in the superconducting phase or the 245 phase. The suppression of superconductivity can be attributed to restraining of the superconducting phase and meanwhile inducing another non-superconducting phase by Mn doping.

Superconductivity in doped Dirac semimetals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hashimoto, Tatsuki; Kobayashi, Shingo; Tanaka, Yukio; Sato, Masatoshi

2016-07-01

We theoretically study intrinsic superconductivity in doped Dirac semimetals. Dirac semimetals host bulk Dirac points, which are formed by doubly degenerate bands, so the Hamiltonian is described by a 4 ×4 matrix and six types of k -independent pair potentials are allowed by the Fermi-Dirac statistics. We show that the unique spin-orbit coupling leads to characteristic superconducting gap structures and d vectors on the Fermi surface and the electron-electron interaction between intra and interorbitals gives a novel phase diagram of superconductivity. It is found that when the interorbital attraction is dominant, an unconventional superconducting state with point nodes appears. To verify the experimental signature of possible superconducting states, we calculate the temperature dependence of bulk physical properties such as electronic specific heat and spin susceptibility and surface state. In the unconventional superconducting phase, either dispersive or flat Andreev bound states appear between point nodes, which leads to double peaks or a single peak in the surface density of states, respectively. As a result, possible superconducting states can be distinguished by combining bulk and surface measurements.

Magnetoresistance in the superconducting state at the (111) LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Davis, S.; Huang, Z.; Han, K.; Ariando, Venkatesan, T.; Chandrasekhar, V.

2017-10-01

Condensed-matter systems that simultaneously exhibit superconductivity and ferromagnetism are rare due the antagonistic relationship between conventional spin-singlet superconductivity and ferromagnetic order. In materials in which superconductivity and magnetic order are known to coexist (such as some heavy-fermion materials), the superconductivity is thought to be of an unconventional nature. Recently, the conducting gas that lives at the interface between the perovskite band insulators LaAlO3 (LAO) and SrTiO3 (STO) has also been shown to host both superconductivity and magnetism. Most previous research has focused on LAO/STO samples in which the interface is on the (001) crystal plane. Relatively little work has focused on the (111) crystal orientation, which has hexagonal symmetry at the interface, and has been predicted to have potentially interesting topological properties, including unconventional superconducting pairing states. Here we report measurements of the magnetoresistance of (111) LAO/STO heterostructures at temperatures at which they are also superconducting. As with the (001) structures, the magnetoresistance is hysteretic, indicating the coexistence of magnetism and superconductivity, but in addition, we find that this magnetoresistance is anisotropic. Such an anisotropic response is completely unexpected in the superconducting state and suggests that (111) LAO/STO heterostructures may support unconventional superconductivity.

Type-I and type-II topological nodal superconductors with s -wave interaction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Beibing; Yang, Xiaosen; Xu, Ning; Gong, Ming

2018-01-01

Topological nodal superconductors with protected gapless points in momentum space are generally realized based on unconventional pairings. In this work we propose a minimal model to realize these topological nodal phases with only s -wave interaction. In our model the linear and quadratic spin-orbit couplings along the two orthogonal directions introduce anisotropic effective unconventional pairings in momentum space. This model may support different nodal superconducting phases characterized by either an integer winding number in BDI class or a Z2 index in D class at the particle-hole invariant axes. In the vicinity of the nodal points the effective Hamiltonian can be described by either type-I or type-II Dirac equations, and the Lifshitz transition from type-I nodal phases to type-II nodal phases can be driven by external in-plane magnetic fields. We show that these nodal phases are robust against weak impurities, which only slightly renormalizes the momentum-independent parameters in the impurity-averaged Hamiltonian, thus these phases are possible to be realized in experiments with real semi-Dirac materials. The smoking-gun evidences to verify these phases based on scanning tunneling spectroscopy method are also briefly discussed.

Implementing quantum optics with parametrically driven superconducting circuits

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aumentado, Jose

Parametric coupling has received much attention, in part because it forms the core of many low-noise amplifiers in superconducting quantum information experiments. However, parametric coupling in superconducting circuits is, as a general rule, simple to generate and forms the basis of a methodology for interacting microwave fields at different frequencies. In the quantum regime, this has important consequences, allowing relative novices to do experiments in superconducting circuits today that were previously heroic efforts in quantum optics and cavity-QED. In this talk, I'll give an overview of some of our work demonstrating parametric coupling within the context of circuit-QED as well as some of the possibilities this concept creates in our field.

Disorder-induced topological phase transitions in two-dimensional spin-orbit coupled superconductors

PubMed Central

Qin, Wei; Xiao, Di; Chang, Kai; Shen, Shun-Qing; Zhang, Zhenyu

2016-01-01

Normal superconductors with Rashba spin-orbit coupling have been explored as candidate systems of topological superconductors. Here we present a comparative theoretical study of the effects of different types of disorder on the topological phases of two-dimensional Rashba spin-orbit coupled superconductors. First, we show that a topologically trivial superconductor can be driven into a chiral topological superconductor upon diluted doping of isolated magnetic disorder, which close and reopen the quasiparticle gap of the paired electrons in a nontrivial manner. Secondly, the superconducting nature of a topological superconductor is found to be robust against Anderson disorder, but the topological nature is not, converting the system into a topologically trivial state even in the weak scattering limit. These topological phase transitions are distinctly characterized by variations in the topological invariant. We discuss the central findings in connection with existing experiments, and provide new schemes towards eventual realization of topological superconductors. PMID:27991541

Disorder-induced topological phase transitions in two-dimensional spin-orbit coupled superconductors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qin, Wei; Xiao, Di; Chang, Kai; Shen, Shun-Qing; Zhang, Zhenyu

2016-12-01

Normal superconductors with Rashba spin-orbit coupling have been explored as candidate systems of topological superconductors. Here we present a comparative theoretical study of the effects of different types of disorder on the topological phases of two-dimensional Rashba spin-orbit coupled superconductors. First, we show that a topologically trivial superconductor can be driven into a chiral topological superconductor upon diluted doping of isolated magnetic disorder, which close and reopen the quasiparticle gap of the paired electrons in a nontrivial manner. Secondly, the superconducting nature of a topological superconductor is found to be robust against Anderson disorder, but the topological nature is not, converting the system into a topologically trivial state even in the weak scattering limit. These topological phase transitions are distinctly characterized by variations in the topological invariant. We discuss the central findings in connection with existing experiments, and provide new schemes towards eventual realization of topological superconductors.

Quantum criticality at the superconductor-insulator transition revealed by specific heat measurements

PubMed Central

Poran, S.; Nguyen-Duc, T.; Auerbach, A.; Dupuis, N.; Frydman, A.; Bourgeois, Olivier

2017-01-01

The superconductor–insulator transition (SIT) is considered an excellent example of a quantum phase transition that is driven by quantum fluctuations at zero temperature. The quantum critical point is characterized by a diverging correlation length and a vanishing energy scale. Low-energy fluctuations near quantum criticality may be experimentally detected by specific heat, cp, measurements. Here we use a unique highly sensitive experiment to measure cp of two-dimensional granular Pb films through the SIT. The specific heat shows the usual jump at the mean field superconducting transition temperature marking the onset of Cooper pairs formation. As the film thickness is tuned towards the SIT, is relatively unchanged, while the magnitude of the jump and low-temperature specific heat increase significantly. This behaviour is taken as the thermodynamic fingerprint of quantum criticality in the vicinity of a quantum phase transition. PMID:28224994

Quantum criticality at the superconductor-insulator transition revealed by specific heat measurements.

PubMed

Poran, S; Nguyen-Duc, T; Auerbach, A; Dupuis, N; Frydman, A; Bourgeois, Olivier

2017-02-22

The superconductor-insulator transition (SIT) is considered an excellent example of a quantum phase transition that is driven by quantum fluctuations at zero temperature. The quantum critical point is characterized by a diverging correlation length and a vanishing energy scale. Low-energy fluctuations near quantum criticality may be experimentally detected by specific heat, c p , measurements. Here we use a unique highly sensitive experiment to measure c p of two-dimensional granular Pb films through the SIT. The specific heat shows the usual jump at the mean field superconducting transition temperature marking the onset of Cooper pairs formation. As the film thickness is tuned towards the SIT, is relatively unchanged, while the magnitude of the jump and low-temperature specific heat increase significantly. This behaviour is taken as the thermodynamic fingerprint of quantum criticality in the vicinity of a quantum phase transition.

Perspectives of disproportionation driven superconductivity in strongly correlated 3d compounds.

PubMed

Moskvin, A S

2013-02-27

Disproportionation in 3d compounds can give rise to an unconventional electron-hole Bose liquid with a very rich phase diagram, from a Bose metal, to a charge ordering insulator and an inhomogeneous Bose-superfluid. Optimal conditions for disproportionation driven high-T(c) superconductivity are shown to be realized only for several Jahn-Teller d(n) configurations that permit the formation of well defined local composite bosons. These are the high-spin d(4), low-spin d(7), and d(9) configurations given the octahedral crystal field, and the d(1), high-spin d(6) configurations given the tetrahedral crystal field. The disproportionation reaction has a peculiar 'anti-Jahn-Teller' character lifting the bare orbital degeneracy. Superconductivity in the d(4) and d(6) systems at variance with d(1), d(7), and d(9) systems implies unavoidable coexistence of the spin-triplet composite bosons and the magnetic lattice. We argue that unconventional high-T(c) superconductivity, observed in quasi-2d cuprates with tetragonally distorted CuO(6) octahedra and iron-based layered pnictides/chalcogenides with tetrahedrally coordinated Fe(2+) ions presents a key argument to support the fact that the disproportionation scenario is at work in these compounds.

PREFACE: Anisotropic and multiband pairing: from borides to multicomponent superconductivity Anisotropic and multiband pairing: from borides to multicomponent superconductivity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Annett, James; Kusmartsev, Feodor; Bianconi, Antonio

2009-01-01

In 2001, the discovery of superconductivity in MgB2 rapidly led to the understanding that its complex multi-sheeted Fermi surface had two distinct values of the gap parameter Δ, each with its own characteristic temperature dependence. While the theory of multigap superconductivity had been developed long ago, this was the first well studied example where multigap behaviour was observed clearly, and indeed is essential to understand the full superconducting properties of the material. Following this discovery, evidence for multigap behaviour has appeared in a number of materials, including cuprates, ruthenates, and most recently the iron pnictides. As well as multigap pairing on different Fermi-surface sheets, strong gap anisotropy in k-space and strong modulations of the gap in real space (e.g. stripes and phase separation models) are also important in cuprates. The aim of this special section is to present a selection of high-quality papers from experts in these diverse systems, showing the links and common physical issues arising from the existence of multi-component Cooper pairing. The papers collected together for the special section provide a snapshot of the current state of the understanding of multi-component superconductivity in a wide range of materials. In a model motivated by MgB2, Tanaka and Eschrig describe Abrikosov vortex lattice in a two-gap superconductor, examining how the vortex structure is modified by three-dimensionality or quasi two-dimensionality of the Fermi surface. The multi-sheeted Fermi surfaces of the nickel borocarbides are probed using angle-resolved positron annihilation spectroscopy, described by Dugdale et al, leading to a full three-dimensional picture of the complex Fermi surface in this superconducting material. Possible evidence for multigap superconductivity in the iron pnictides, obtained using Andreev point contact spectroscopy, is described by Samuely et al. The iron pnictides are also the subject of the article by Caivano et al, in which it is proposed that the Feschbach resonance mechanism operating near to a quantum critical point may lead to stripe-like fluctuations in these materials. A number of papers describe multigap-related effects in high-Tc superconductors. In particular, Atkinson shows how the existence of CuO chain states at the Fermi surface leads to a set of resonances in the induced gap in the chain layer, which have a pronounced effect on the vortex core shape. Kristoffel et al discuss the existence of the two coherence lengths in two-gap superconductors, and describe how this leads to spatially periodic fluctuations, with possible application to high-temperature superconductivity. Kugel et al describe a scenario for phase separation due to long-range Coulomb forces leading to microstrain and nanoscale inhomogeneities in high-Tc cuprates. Kusmartsev and Saarela also argue that charge over-screening may lead to 'Coulomb bubbles' in high-Tc superconductors. Finally, Wysokiński et al describe multigap effects in strontium ruthenate, in particular the effects on the NMR relaxation rate spectra, which are obtained for NMR on different nuclear species.

Discovery of orbital-selective Cooper pairing in FeSe

DOE PAGES

Sprau, P. O.; Kostin, A.; Kreisel, A.; ...

2017-07-07

The superconductor iron selenide (FeSe) is of intense interest owing to its unusual nonmagnetic nematic state and potential for high-temperature superconductivity. But its Cooper pairing mechanism has not been determined. Here, we used Bogoliubov quasiparticle interference imaging to determine the Fermi surface geometry of the electronic bands surrounding the Γ = (0,0) and X = (π/a Fe, 0) points of FeSe and to measure the corresponding superconducting energy gaps. We show that both gaps are extremely anisotropic but nodeless and that they exhibit gap maxima oriented orthogonally in momentum space. Moreover, by implementing a novel technique, we demonstrate that thesemore » gaps have opposite sign with respect to each other. This complex gap configuration reveals the existence of orbital-selective Cooper pairing that, in FeSe, is based preferentially on electrons from the d yz orbitals of the iron atoms.« less

Discovery of orbital-selective Cooper pairing in FeSe

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sprau, P. O.; Kostin, A.; Kreisel, A.

The superconductor iron selenide (FeSe) is of intense interest owing to its unusual nonmagnetic nematic state and potential for high-temperature superconductivity. But its Cooper pairing mechanism has not been determined. Here, we used Bogoliubov quasiparticle interference imaging to determine the Fermi surface geometry of the electronic bands surrounding the Γ = (0,0) and X = (π/a Fe, 0) points of FeSe and to measure the corresponding superconducting energy gaps. We show that both gaps are extremely anisotropic but nodeless and that they exhibit gap maxima oriented orthogonally in momentum space. Moreover, by implementing a novel technique, we demonstrate that thesemore » gaps have opposite sign with respect to each other. This complex gap configuration reveals the existence of orbital-selective Cooper pairing that, in FeSe, is based preferentially on electrons from the d yz orbitals of the iron atoms.« less

Renormalization of Coulomb interactions in s-wave superconductor NaxCoO2

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yada, Keiji; Kontani, Hiroshi

2007-03-01

We study the renormalized Coulomb interactions due to retardation effect in NaxCoO2. Although the Morel Anderson's pseudo-potential for a1g orbital μa1g* is relatively large because the direct Coulomb repulsion U is large, that for interband transition between a1g and eg' orbitals μa1g,eg'* is very small since the renormalization factor for pair hopping J is square of that for U. Therefore, the s-wave superconductivity due to valence-band Suhl-Kondo mechanism will survive against strong Coulomb interactions. The interband hopping of Cooper pairs due to shear phonons is essential to understand the superconductivity in NaxCoO2.

Large bipolarons and oxide superconductivity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Emin, David

2017-02-01

Large-bipolaron superconductivity is plausible with carrier densities well below those of conventional metals. Bipolarons form when carriers self-trap in pairs. Coherently moving large-bipolarons require extremely large ratios of static to optical dielectric-constants. The mutual Coulomb repulsion of a planar large-bipolaron's paired carriers drives it to a four-lobed shape. A phonon-mediated attraction among large-bipolarons propels their condensation into a liquid. This liquid's excitations move slowly with a huge effective mass. Excitations' concomitant weak scattering by phonons produces a moderate low-temperature dc resistivity that increases linearly with rising temperature. With falling temperature an energy gap opens between large-bipolarons' excitations and those of their self-trapped electronic carriers.

Enhancement of pairing interaction and magnetic fluctuations toward a band insulator in an electron-doped Li(x)ZrNCl Superconductor.

PubMed

Kasahara, Yuichi; Kishiume, Tsukasa; Takano, Takumi; Kobayashi, Katsuki; Matsuoka, Eiichi; Onodera, Hideya; Kuroki, Kazuhiko; Taguchi, Yasujiro; Iwasa, Yoshihiro

2009-08-14

The doping dependence of specific heat and magnetic susceptibility has been investigated for Li(x)ZrNCl superconductors derived from a band insulator. As the carrier concentration is decreased, the anisotropy of superconducting gap changes from highly anisotropic to almost isotropic. It was also found that, upon reducing carrier density, the superconducting coupling strength and the magnetic susceptibility are concomitantly enhanced in parallel with T(c), while the density of states at the Fermi level is kept almost constant. Theoretical calculations taking into account the on-site Coulomb interaction reproduced the experimental results, suggesting a possible pairing mediated by magnetic fluctuations, even in the doped band insulators.

What is strange about high-temperature superconductivity in cuprates?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Božović, I.; He, X.; Wu, J.; Bollinger, A. T.

2017-10-01

Cuprate superconductors exhibit many features, but the ultimate question is why the critical temperature (Tc) is so high. The fundamental dichotomy is between the weak-pairing, Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) scenario, and Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of strongly-bound pairs. While for underdoped cuprates it is hotly debated which of these pictures is appropriate, it is commonly believed that on the overdoped side strongly-correlated fermion physics evolves smoothly into the conventional BCS behavior. Here, we test this dogma by studying the dependence of key superconducting parameters on doping, temperature, and external fields, in thousands of cuprate samples. The findings do not conform to BCS predictions anywhere in the phase diagram.

Superconducting pairing of topological surface states in bismuth selenide films on niobium

PubMed Central

Zhang, Can; Tsuzuki, Akihiro

2018-01-01

A topological insulator film coupled to a simple isotropic s-wave superconductor substrate can foster helical pairing of the Dirac fermions associated with the topological surface states. Experimental realization of such a system is exceedingly difficult, however using a novel “flip-chip” technique, we have prepared single-crystalline Bi2Se3 films with predetermined thicknesses in terms of quintuple layers (QLs) on top of Nb substrates fresh from in situ cleavage. Our angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) measurements of the film surface disclose superconducting gaps and coherence peaks of similar magnitude for both the topological surface states and bulk states. The ARPES spectral map as a function of temperature and film thickness up to 10 QLs reveals key characteristics relevant to the mechanism of coupling between the topological surface states and the superconducting Nb substrate; the effective coupling length is found to be much larger than the decay length of the topological surface states. PMID:29719866

Chiral topological superconductor and half-integer conductance plateau from quantum anomalous Hall plateau transition

DOE PAGES

Wang, Jing; Zhou, Quan; Lian, Biao; ...

2015-08-31

Here, we propose to realize a two-dimensional chiral topological superconducting (TSC) state from the quantum anomalous Hall plateau transition in a magnetic topological insulator thin film through the proximity effect to a conventional s -wave superconductor. This state has a full pairing gap in the bulk and a single chiral Majorana mode at the edge. The optimal condition for realizing such chiral TSC is to have inequivalent superconducting pairing amplitudes on top and bottom surfaces of the doped magnetic topological insulator. We further propose several transport experiments to detect the chiral TSC. One unique signature is that the conductance willmore » be quantized into a half-integer plateau at the coercive field in this hybrid system. In particular, with the point contact formed by a superconducting junction, the conductance oscillates between e 2 /2h and e2 /h with the frequency determined by the voltage across the junction. We close by discussing the feasibility of these experimental proposals.« less

Sea of Majorana fermions from pseudo-scalar superconducting order in three dimensional Dirac materials.

PubMed

Salehi, Morteza; Jafari, S A

2017-08-15

We suggest that spin-singlet pseudo-scalar s-wave superconducting pairing creates a two dimensional sea of Majorana fermions on the surface of three dimensional Dirac superconductors (3DDS). This pseudo-scalar superconducting order parameter Δ 5 , in competition with scalar Dirac mass m, leads to a topological phase transition due to band inversion. We find that a perfect Andreev-Klein reflection is guaranteed by presence of anomalous Andreev reflection along with the conventional one. This effect manifests itself in a resonant peak of the differential conductance. Furthermore, Josephson current of the Δ 5 |m|Δ 5 junction in the presence of anomalous Andreev reflection is fractional with 4π period. Our finding suggests another search area for condensed matter realization of Majorana fermions which are beyond the vortex-core of p-wave superconductors. The required Δ 5 pairing can be extrinsically induced by a conventional s-wave superconductor into a three dimensional Dirac material (3DDM).

Chiral topological superconductor and half-integer conductance plateau from quantum anomalous Hall plateau transition

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wang, Jing; Zhou, Quan; Lian, Biao

Here, we propose to realize a two-dimensional chiral topological superconducting (TSC) state from the quantum anomalous Hall plateau transition in a magnetic topological insulator thin film through the proximity effect to a conventional s -wave superconductor. This state has a full pairing gap in the bulk and a single chiral Majorana mode at the edge. The optimal condition for realizing such chiral TSC is to have inequivalent superconducting pairing amplitudes on top and bottom surfaces of the doped magnetic topological insulator. We further propose several transport experiments to detect the chiral TSC. One unique signature is that the conductance willmore » be quantized into a half-integer plateau at the coercive field in this hybrid system. In particular, with the point contact formed by a superconducting junction, the conductance oscillates between e 2 /2h and e2 /h with the frequency determined by the voltage across the junction. We close by discussing the feasibility of these experimental proposals.« less

Superconductivity in metal coated graphene

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Uchoa, Bruno; Castro Neto, Antonio

2007-03-01

Graphene, a single atomic layer of graphite, is a two dimensional (2D) zero gap insulator with a high electronic mobility between nearest neighbor carbon sites. The unique electronic properties of graphene, from the semi-metallic behavior to the observation of an anomalous quantum Hall effect and a zero field quantized minimum of conductivity derive from the relativistic nature of its quasiparticles. By doping graphene, it behaves in several aspects as a conventional Fermi liquid, where electrons may form Cooper pairs by coupling with a bosonic mode. In this talk, we develop a mean-field phenomenology of superconductivity in a honeycomb lattice. We predict the possibility of two distinct phases, a singlet s-wave phase and a novel p+ip wave phase in the singlet channel. At half filling, the p+ip phase is gapless and superconductivity is a hidden order. We propose a few possible sources of Cooper pairing instability in graphene coated with alkaline and transition metals, and similar low dimensional graphene based devices.

Full-switching FSF-type superconducting spin-triplet magnetic random access memory element

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lenk, D.; Morari, R.; Zdravkov, V. I.; Ullrich, A.; Khaydukov, Yu.; Obermeier, G.; Müller, C.; Sidorenko, A. S.; von Nidda, H.-A. Krug; Horn, S.; Tagirov, L. R.; Tidecks, R.

2017-11-01

In the present work a superconducting Co/CoOx/Cu41Ni59 /Nb/Cu41Ni59 nanoscale thin film heterostructure is investigated, which exhibits a superconducting transition temperature, Tc, depending on the history of magnetic field applied parallel to the film plane. In more detail, around zero applied field, Tc is lower when the field is changed from negative to positive polarity (with respect to the cooling field), compared to the opposite case. We interpret this finding as the result of the generation of the odd-in-frequency triplet component of superconductivity arising at noncollinear orientation of the magnetizations in the Cu41Ni59 layer adjacent to the CoOx layer. This interpretation is supported by superconducting quantum interference device magnetometry, which revealed a correlation between details of the magnetic structure and the observed superconducting spin-valve effects. Readout of information is possible at zero applied field and, thus, no permanent field is required to stabilize both states. Consequently, this system represents a superconducting magnetic random access memory element for superconducting electronics. By applying increased transport currents, the system can be driven to the full switching mode between the completely superconducting and the normal state.

Unconventional Electron Pairing and Topological Superconductivity in Proximitized HgTe Quantum Wells

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ren, Hechen; Hart, Sean; Kosowsky, Michael; Ben-Shach, Gilad; Leubner, Philipp; Brüne, Christoph; Buhmann, Hartmut; Molenkamp, Laurens; Halperin, Bertrand; Yacoby, Amir

Coupling s-wave superconductors to systems with exotic Fermi surface spin textures has been recently proposed as a way to manipulate the nature of the paired state, in some cases even leading to a topological phase transition. Recently, we studied the behavior of Fraunhofer interference in HgTe quantum well-based Josephson junctions, in the presence of a magnetic field applied in the plane of the quantum well. Here we theoretically analyze our system and compare the predicted behavior to our experimental results. We find that the in-plane magnetic field tunes the momentum of Cooper pairs in the quantum well, directly reflecting the response of the spin-dependent Fermi surfaces. This momentum tuning depends crucially on the type of spin-orbit coupling in the system. In the high electron density regime, the induced superconductivity evolves with electron density in agreement with our model based on the Hamiltonian of Bernevig, Hughes and Zhang. This agreement provides a quantitative value for g/vF, where g is the effective g-factor and vF is the Fermi velocity. Our new understanding of the interplay between spin physics and superconductivity introduces a way to spatially engineer the order parameter from singlet to triplet pairing, and in general allows investigation of electronic spin texture at the Fermi surface of materials. NSF DMR-1206016; STC Center for Integrated Quantum Materials under NSF Grant No. DMR-1231319; NSF GRFP under Grant DGE1144152, Microsoft Corporation Project Q.

Quantitative determination of pairing interactions for high-temperature superconductivity in cuprates

PubMed Central

Bok, Jin Mo; Bae, Jong Ju; Choi, Han-Yong; Varma, Chandra M.; Zhang, Wentao; He, Junfeng; Zhang, Yuxiao; Yu, Li; Zhou, X. J.

2016-01-01

A profound problem in modern condensed matter physics is discovering and understanding the nature of fluctuations and their coupling to fermions in cuprates, which lead to high-temperature superconductivity and the invariably associated strange metal state. We report the quantitative determination of normal and pairing self-energies, made possible by laser-based angle-resolved photoemission measurements of unprecedented accuracy and stability. Through a precise inversion procedure, both the effective interactions in the attractive d-wave symmetry and the repulsive part in the full symmetry are determined. The latter is nearly angle-independent. Near Tc, both interactions are nearly independent of frequency and have almost the same magnitude over the complete energy range of up to about 0.4 eV, except for a low-energy feature at around 50 meV that is present only in the repulsive part, which has less than 10% of the total spectral weight. Well below Tc, they both change similarly, with superconductivity-induced features at low energies. Besides finding the pairing self-energy and the attractive interactions for the first time, these results expose the central paradox of the problem of high Tc: how the same frequency-independent fluctuations can dominantly scatter at angles ±π/2 in the attractive channel to give d-wave pairing and lead to angle-independent repulsive scattering. The experimental results are compared with available theoretical calculations based on antiferromagnetic fluctuations, the Hubbard model, and quantum-critical fluctuations of the loop-current order. PMID:26973872

Superconductivity in electron-doped arsenene

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kong, Xin; Gao, Miao; Yan, Xun-Wang; Lu, Zhong-Yi; Xiang, Tao

2018-04-01

Based on the first-principles density functional theory electronic structure calculation, we investigate the possible phonon-mediated superconductivity in arsenene, a two-dimensional buckled arsenic atomic sheet, under electron doping. We find that the strong superconducting pairing interaction results mainly from the $p_z$-like electrons of arsenic atoms and the $A_1$ phonon mode around the $K$ point, and the superconducting transition temperature can be as high as 30.8 K in the arsenene with 0.2 doped electrons per unit cell and 12\\% applied biaxial tensile strain. This transition temperature is about ten times higher than that in the bulk arsenic under high pressure. It is also the highest transition temperature that is predicted for electron-doped two-dimensional elemental superconductors, including graphene, silicene, phosphorene, and borophene.

Coexistence of superconductivity and ferromagnetism in two dimensions.

PubMed

Dikin, D A; Mehta, M; Bark, C W; Folkman, C M; Eom, C B; Chandrasekhar, V

2011-07-29

Ferromagnetism is usually considered to be incompatible with conventional superconductivity, as it destroys the singlet correlations responsible for the pairing interaction. Superconductivity and ferromagnetism are known to coexist in only a few bulk rare-earth materials. Here we report evidence for their coexistence in a two-dimensional system: the interface between two bulk insulators, LaAlO(3) (LAO) and SrTiO(3) (STO), a system that has been studied intensively recently. Magnetoresistance, Hall, and electric-field dependence measurements suggest that there are two distinct bands of charge carriers that contribute to the interface conductivity. The sensitivity of properties of the interface to an electric field makes this a fascinating system for the study of the interplay between superconductivity and magnetism. © 2011 American Physical Society

Local antiferromagnetic exchange and collaborative Fermi surface as key ingredients of high temperature superconductors

PubMed Central

Hu, Jiangping; Ding, Hong

2012-01-01

Cuprates, ferropnictides and ferrochalcogenides are three classes of unconventional high temperature superconductors, who share similar phase diagrams in which superconductivity develops after a magnetic order is suppressed, suggesting a strong interplay between superconductivity and magnetism, although the exact picture of this interplay remains elusive. Here we show that there is a direct bridge connecting antiferromagnetic exchange interactions determined in the parent compounds of these materials to the superconducting gap functions observed in the corresponding superconducting materials: in all high temperature superconductors, the Fermi surface topology matches the form factor of the pairing symmetry favored by local magnetic exchange interactions. We suggest that this match offers a principle guide to search for new high temperature superconductors. PMID:22536479

Disorder-controlled superconductivity at YBa2Cu3O7/SrTiO3 interfaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Garcia-Barriocanal, J.; Perez-Muñoz, A. M.; Sefrioui, Z.; Arias, D.; Varela, M.; Leon, C.; Pennycook, S. J.; Santamaria, J.

2013-06-01

We examine the effect of interface disorder in suppressing superconductivity in coherently grown ultrathin YBa2Cu3O7 (YBCO) layers on SrTiO3 (STO) in YBCO/STO superlattices. The termination plane of the STO is TiO2 and the CuO chains are missing at the interface. Disorder (steps) at the STO interface cause alterations of the stacking sequence of the intracell YBCO atomic layers. Stacking faults give rise to antiphase boundaries which break the continuity of the CuO2 planes and depress superconductivity. We show that superconductivity is directly controlled by interface disorder outlining the importance of pair breaking and localization by disorder in ultrathin layers.

Bulk superconducting phase with a full energy gap in the doped topological insulator Cu(x)Bi₂Se₃.

PubMed

Kriener, M; Segawa, Kouji; Ren, Zhi; Sasaki, Satoshi; Ando, Yoichi

2011-03-25

The superconductivity recently found in the doped topological insulator Cu(x)Bi₂Se₃ offers a great opportunity to search for a topological superconductor. We have successfully prepared a single-crystal sample with a large shielding fraction and measured the specific-heat anomaly associated with the superconductivity. The temperature dependence of the specific heat suggests a fully gapped, strong-coupling superconducting state, but the BCS theory is not in full agreement with the data, which hints at a possible unconventional pairing in Cu(x)Bi₂Se₃. Also, the evaluated effective mass of 2.6m(e) (m(e) is the free electron mass) points to a large mass enhancement in this material.

Superconductivity, pairing symmetry, and disorder in the doped topological insulator Sn1 -xInxTe for x ≥0.10

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smylie, M. P.; Claus, H.; Kwok, W.-K.; Louden, E. R.; Eskildsen, M. R.; Sefat, A. S.; Zhong, R. D.; Schneeloch, J.; Gu, G. D.; Bokari, E.; Niraula, P. M.; Kayani, A.; Dewhurst, C. D.; Snezhko, A.; Welp, U.

2018-01-01

The temperature dependence of the London penetration depth Δ λ (T ) in the superconducting doped topological crystalline insulator Sn1 -xInxTe was measured down to 450 mK for two different doping levels, x ≈0.45 (optimally doped) and x ≈0.10 (underdoped), bookending the range of cubic phase in the compound. The results indicate no deviation from fully gapped BCS-like behavior, eliminating several candidate unconventional gap structures. Critical field values below 1 K and other superconducting parameters are also presented. The introduction of disorder by repeated particle irradiation with 5 MeV protons does not enhance Tc, indicating that ferroelectric interactions do not compete with superconductivity.

Superconducting tensor gravity gradiometer for satellite geodesy and inertial navigation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Paik, H. J.

1981-01-01

A sensitive gravity gradiometer can provide much needed gravity data of the earth and improve the accuracy of inertial navigation. Superconductivity and other properties of materials at low temperatures can be used to obtain a sensitive, low-drift gravity gradiometer; by differencing the outputs of accelerometer pairs using superconducting circuits, it is possible to construct a tensor gravity gradiometer which measures all the in-line and cross components of the tensor simultaneously. Additional superconducting circuits can be provided to determine the linear and angular acceleration vectors. A tensor gravity gradiometer with these features is being developed for satellite geodesy. The device constitutes a complete package of inertial navigation instruments with angular and linear acceleration readouts as well as gravity signals.

Polarity-Dependent Vortex Pinning and Spontaneous Vortex-Antivortex Structures in Superconductor/Ferromagnet Hybrids

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bending, Simon J.; Milošević, Milorad V.; Moshchalkov, Victor V.

Hybrid structures composed of superconducting films that are magnetically coupled to arrays of nanoscale ferromagnetic dots have attracted enormous interest in recent years. Broadly speaking, such systems fall into one of two distinct regimes. Ferromagnetic dots with weak moments pin free vortices, leading to enhanced superconducting critical currents, particularly when the conditions for commensurability are satisfied. Dots with strong moments spontaneously generate one or more vortex-antivortex (V-AV) pairs which lead to a rich variety of pinning, anti-pinning and annihilation phenomena. We describe high resolution Hall probe microscopy of flux structures in various hybrid samples composed of superconducting Pb films deposited on arrays of ferromagnetic Co or Co/Pt dots with both weak and strong moments. We show directly that dots with very weak perpendicular magnetic moments do not induce vortex-antivortex pairs, but still act as strong polarity-dependent vortex pinning centres for free vortices. In contrast, we have directly observed spontaneous V-AV pairs induced by large moment dots with both in-plane and perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, and studied the rich physical phenomena that arise when they interact with added "free" (anti)fluxons in an applied magnetic field. The interpretation of our imaging results is supported by bulk magnetometry measurements and state-of-the-art Ginzburg-Landau and London theory calculations.

Superconducting properties of lithographic lead break junctions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Weber, David; Scheer, Elke

2018-01-01

We have fabricated mechanically controlled break junction samples made of lead (Pb) by means of state-of-the-art nanofabrication methods: electron beam lithography and physical vapour deposition. The electrical and magnetic properties were characterized in a {}3{He} cryostat and showed a hard superconducting gap. Temperature and magnetic field dependence of tunnel contacts were compared and quantitatively described by including either thermal broadening of the density of states or pair breaking in the framework of a Skalski model, respectively. We show point contact spectra of few-atom contacts and present tunneling spectra exhibiting a superconducting double-gap structure.

Hole superconductivity in a generalized two-band model

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hong, X.Q.; Hirsch, J.E.

1992-06-01

We study superconductivity in a two-band model that generalizes the model introduced by Suhl, Matthias, and Walker: All possible interaction terms coupling both bands are included. The pairing interaction is assumed to originate in the momentum dependence of the intraband interactions that arises in the model of hole superconductivity. The model generically displays a single critical temperature and two gaps, with the larger gap associated with the band with strongest holelike character to the carriers. The dependence of the critical temperature and of the magnitudes of the gaps on the various parameters in the Hamiltonian is studied.

Spectroscopy of metal "superatom" nanoclusters and high-Tc superconducting pairing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Halder, Avik; Kresin, Vitaly V.

2015-12-01

A unique property of metal nanoclusters is the "superatom" shell structure of their delocalized electrons. The electronic shell levels are highly degenerate and therefore represent sharp peaks in the density of states. This can enable exceptionally strong electron pairing in certain clusters composed of tens to hundreds of atoms. In a finite system, such as a free nanocluster or a nucleus, pairing is observed most clearly via its effect on the energy spectrum of the constituent fermions. Accordingly, we performed a photoionization spectroscopy study of size-resolved aluminum nanoclusters and observed a rapid rise in the near-threshold density of states of several clusters (A l37 ,44 ,66 ,68 ) with decreasing temperature. The characteristics of this behavior are consistent with compression of the density of states by a pairing transition into a high-temperature superconducting state with Tc≳100 K. This value exceeds that of bulk aluminum by two orders of magnitude. These results highlight the potential of novel pairing effects in size-quantized systems and the possibility to attain even higher critical temperatures by optimizing the particles' size and composition. As a new class of high-temperature superconductors, such metal nanocluster particles are promising building blocks for high-Tc materials, devices, and networks.

Origin of the U(1) field mass in superconductors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Koizumi, Hiroyasu

2017-05-01

Recently, a new theory for superconductivity has been put forward, in which the persistent current generation is attributed to the emergent singularities of the electronic wave function that are created by the spin-twisting itinerant circular motion of electrons. The persistent current generated by this mechanism behaves in every respect like supercurrent in superconductors, yielding the flux quantum h/2e and the Josephson frequency 2eV/h, where h is Planck’s constant, -e is the electron charge, and V is the voltage across the Josephson junction. The mass generation of the U(1) gauge field (or the Meissner effect) in the new theory is due to the emergence of topological objects, ‘instantons’ generated by the single-valued requirement of the wave function in the presence of the emergent singularities. The current standard theory of superconductivity is based on the BCS theory, and explains the emergence of superconductivity as due to the global U(1) gauge symmetry breaking realized by the Cooper pair formation. The U(1) field mass generation is believed to be due to this global U(1) gauge symmetry breaking. However, the feasibility of this mechanism has been questioned since no known interaction can prepare the global U(1) symmetry broken state from the normal state. We argue here that the U(1) mass generation in the BCS superconductor can be attributed to the one by the instanton mentioned above if the Rashba spin-orbit interaction is added. Then, the occurrence of persistent current generation becomes due to the instanton formation, and the role of the Cooper pair formation is to stabilize the instanton by providing an energy gap for perturbative excitations. Upon forming the Cooper pair, the instanton is stabilized and persistent current generation becomes possible. Thus, the superconducting transition temperature coincides with the Cooper pair formation temperature.

Pressure-tuned superconductivity and normal-state behavior in Ba (Fe0.943Co0.057)2As2 near the antiferromagnetic boundary

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, W.; Wu, Y. F.; Li, X. J.; Bud'ko, S. L.; Canfield, P. C.; Panagopoulos, C.; Li, P. G.; Mu, G.; Hu, T.; Almasan, C. C.; Xiao, H.

2018-04-01

Superconductivity in iron pnictides is unconventional and pairing may be mediated by magnetic fluctuations in the Fe sublattice. Pressure is a clean method to explore superconductivity in iron based superconductors by tuning the ground state continuously without introducing disorder. Here we present a systematic high pressure transport study in Ba (Fe1-xCox) 2As2 single crystals with x =0.057 , which is near the antiferromagnetic instability. Resistivity ρ =ρ0+A Tn was studied under applied pressure up to 7.90 GPa. The parameter n approaches a minimum value of n ≈1 at a critical pressure Pc=3.65 GPa. Near Pc, the superconducting transition temperature Tc reaches a maximum value of 25.8 K. In addition, the superconducting diamagnetism at 2 K shows a sudden change around the same critical pressure. These results may be associated with a possible quantum critical point hidden inside the superconducting dome, near optimum Tc.

Tuning Ising superconductivity with layer and spin-orbit coupling in two-dimensional transition-metal dichalcogenides.

PubMed

de la Barrera, Sergio C; Sinko, Michael R; Gopalan, Devashish P; Sivadas, Nikhil; Seyler, Kyle L; Watanabe, Kenji; Taniguchi, Takashi; Tsen, Adam W; Xu, Xiaodong; Xiao, Di; Hunt, Benjamin M

2018-04-12

Systems simultaneously exhibiting superconductivity and spin-orbit coupling are predicted to provide a route toward topological superconductivity and unconventional electron pairing, driving significant contemporary interest in these materials. Monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenide (TMD) superconductors in particular lack inversion symmetry, yielding an antisymmetric form of spin-orbit coupling that admits both spin-singlet and spin-triplet components of the superconducting wavefunction. Here, we present an experimental and theoretical study of two intrinsic TMD superconductors with large spin-orbit coupling in the atomic layer limit, metallic 2H-TaS 2 and 2H-NbSe 2 . We investigate the superconducting properties as the material is reduced to monolayer thickness and show that high-field measurements point to the largest upper critical field thus reported for an intrinsic TMD superconductor. In few-layer samples, we find the enhancement of the upper critical field is sustained by the dominance of spin-orbit coupling over weak interlayer coupling, providing additional candidate systems for supporting unconventional superconducting states in two dimensions.

Routes to heavy-fermion superconductivity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Steglich, F.; Stockert, O.; Wirth, S.; Geibel, C.; Yuan, H. Q.; Kirchner, S.; Si, Q.

2013-07-01

Superconductivity in lanthanide- and actinide-based heavy-fermion (HF) metals can have different microscopic origins. Among others, Cooper pair formation based on fluctuations of the valence, of the quadrupole moment or of the spin of the localized 4f/5f shell have been proposed. Spin-fluctuation mediated superconductivity in CeCu2Si2 was demonstrated by inelastic neutron scattering to exist in the vicinity of a spin-density-wave (SDW) quantum critical point (QCP). The isostructural HF compound YbRh2Si2 which is prototypical for a Kondo-breakdown QCP has so far not shown any sign of superconductivity down to T ≈ 10 mK. In contrast, results of de-Haas-van-Alphen experiments by Shishido et al. (J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 74, 1103 (2005)) suggest superconductivity in CeRhIn5 close to an antiferromagnetic QCP beyond the SDW type, at which the Kondo effect breaks down. For the related compound CeCoIn5 however, a field-induced QCP of SDW type is extrapolated to exist inside the superconducting phase.

Half-metallic superconducting triplet spin multivalves

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alidoust, Mohammad; Halterman, Klaus

2018-02-01

We study spin switching effects in finite-size superconducting multivalve structures. We examine F1F2SF3 and F1F2SF3F4 hybrids where a singlet superconductor (S) layer is sandwiched among ferromagnet (F) layers with differing thicknesses and magnetization orientations. Our results reveal a considerable number of experimentally viable spin-valve configurations that lead to on-off switching of the superconducting state. For S widths on the order of the superconducting coherence length ξ0, noncollinear magnetization orientations in adjacent F layers with multiple spin axes leads to a rich variety of triplet spin-valve effects. Motivated by recent experiments, we focus on samples where the magnetizations in the F1 and F4 layers exist in a fully spin-polarized half-metallic phase, and calculate the superconducting transition temperature, spatially and energy resolved density of states, and the spin-singlet and spin-triplet superconducting correlations. Our findings demonstrate that superconductivity in these devices can be completely switched on or off over a wide range of magnetization misalignment angles due to the generation of equal-spin and opposite-spin triplet pairings.

Nano-patterned superconducting surface for high quantum efficiency cathode

DOEpatents

Hannon, Fay; Musumeci, Pietro

2017-03-07

A method for providing a superconducting surface on a laser-driven niobium cathode in order to increase the effective quantum efficiency. The enhanced surface increases the effective quantum efficiency by improving the laser absorption of the surface and enhancing the local electric field. The surface preparation method makes feasible the construction of superconducting radio frequency injectors with niobium as the photocathode. An array of nano-structures are provided on a flat surface of niobium. The nano-structures are dimensionally tailored to interact with a laser of specific wavelength to thereby increase the electron yield of the surface.

Unconventional Superconductivity in the BiS_{2}-Based Layered Superconductor NdO_{0.71}F_{0.29}BiS_{2}.

PubMed

Ota, Yuichi; Okazaki, Kozo; Yamamoto, Haruyoshi Q; Yamamoto, Takashi; Watanabe, Shuntaro; Chen, Chuangtian; Nagao, Masanori; Watauchi, Satoshi; Tanaka, Isao; Takano, Yoshihiko; Shin, Shik

2017-04-21

We investigate the superconducting-gap anisotropy in one of the recently discovered BiS_{2}-based superconductors, NdO_{0.71}F_{0.29}BiS_{2} (T_{c}∼5  K), using laser-based angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. Whereas the previously discovered high-T_{c} superconductors such as copper oxides and iron-based superconductors, which are believed to have unconventional superconducting mechanisms, have 3d electrons in their conduction bands, the conduction band of BiS_{2}-based superconductors mainly consists of Bi 6p electrons, and, hence, the conventional superconducting mechanism might be expected. Contrary to this expectation, we observe a strongly anisotropic superconducting gap. This result strongly suggests that the pairing mechanism for NdO_{0.71}F_{0.29}BiS_{2} is an unconventional one and we attribute the observed anisotropy to competitive or cooperative multiple paring interactions.

Robustness against non-magnetic impurities in topological superconductors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nagai, Y.; Ota, Y.; Machida, M.

2014-12-01

We study the robustness against non-magnetic impurities in a three-dimensional topological superconductor, focusing on an effective model (massive Dirac Bogoliubov-de Gennes (BdG) Hamiltonian with s-wave on-site pairing) of CuxBi2Se3 with the parameter set determined by the first-principles calculation. With the use of the self-consistent T- matrix approximation for impurity scattering, we discuss the impurity-concentration dependence of the zero-energy density of states. We show that a single material variable, measuring relativistic effects in the Dirac-BdG Hamiltonian, well characterizes the numerical results. In the nonrelativistic limit, the odd-parity fully-gapped topological superconductivity is fragile against non-magnetic impurities, since this superconductivity can be mapped onto the p-wave superconductivity. On the other hand, in the ultrarelativistic limit, the superconductivity is robust against the non-magnetic impurities, since the effective model has the s-wave superconductivity. We derive the effective Hamiltonian in the both limit.

Nodeless superconductivity and time-reversal symmetry breaking in the noncentrosymmetric superconductor Re24Ti5

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shang, T.; Pang, G. M.; Baines, C.; Jiang, W. B.; Xie, W.; Wang, A.; Medarde, M.; Pomjakushina, E.; Shi, M.; Mesot, J.; Yuan, H. Q.; Shiroka, T.

2018-01-01

The noncentrosymmetric superconductor Re24Ti5 , a time-reversal symmetry- (TRS-) breaking candidate with Tc=6 K , was studied by means of muon-spin rotation/relaxation (μ SR ) and tunnel-diode oscillator techniques. At the macroscopic level, its bulk superconductivity was investigated via electrical resistivity, magnetic susceptibility, and heat-capacity measurements. The low-temperature penetration depth, superfluid density, and electronic heat capacity all evidence an s -wave coupling with an enhanced superconducting gap. The spontaneous magnetic fields revealed by zero-field μ SR below Tc indicate a time-reversal symmetry breaking and thus the unconventional nature of superconductivity in Re24Ti5 . The concomitant occurrence of TRS breaking also in the isostructural Re6(Zr ,Hf ) compounds hints at its common origin in this superconducting family and that an enhanced spin-orbital coupling does not affect pairing symmetry.

Mixed-pairing superconductivity in 5 d Mott insulators with antisymmetric exchange: Application to Sr2IrO4

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zare, Mohammad-Hossein; Biderang, Mehdi; Akbari, Alireza

2017-11-01

We study the symmetry of the potential superconducting order parameter in 5 d Mott insulators with an eye toward hole-doped Sr2IrO4 . Using a mean-field method, a mixed singlet-triplet superconductivity, d +p , is observed due to the antisymmetric exchange originating from a quasi-spin-orbit coupling. Our calculation on ribbon geometry shows the possible existence of the topologically protected edge states, because of the nodal structure of the superconducting gap. These edge modes are spin polarized and emerge as zero-energy flat bands, supporting a symmetry-protected Majorana state, verified by evaluation of the winding number and Z2 topological invariant. At the end, a possible experimental approach for observation of these edge states and determination of the superconducting gap symmetry is discussed based on the quasiparticle interference technique.

Quantum State Transmission in a Superconducting Charge Qubit-Atom Hybrid

PubMed Central

Yu, Deshui; Valado, María Martínez; Hufnagel, Christoph; Kwek, Leong Chuan; Amico, Luigi; Dumke, Rainer

2016-01-01

Hybrids consisting of macroscopic superconducting circuits and microscopic components, such as atoms and spins, have the potential of transmitting an arbitrary state between different quantum species, leading to the prospective of high-speed operation and long-time storage of quantum information. Here we propose a novel hybrid structure, where a neutral-atom qubit directly interfaces with a superconducting charge qubit, to implement the qubit-state transmission. The highly-excited Rydberg atom located inside the gate capacitor strongly affects the behavior of Cooper pairs in the box while the atom in the ground state hardly interferes with the superconducting device. In addition, the DC Stark shift of the atomic states significantly depends on the charge-qubit states. By means of the standard spectroscopic techniques and sweeping the gate voltage bias, we show how to transfer an arbitrary quantum state from the superconducting device to the atom and vice versa. PMID:27922087

High-temperature superconductivity from fine-tuning of Fermi-surface singularities in iron oxypnictides.

PubMed

Charnukha, A; Evtushinsky, D V; Matt, C E; Xu, N; Shi, M; Büchner, B; Zhigadlo, N D; Batlogg, B; Borisenko, S V

2015-12-18

In the family of the iron-based superconductors, the REFeAsO-type compounds (with RE being a rare-earth metal) exhibit the highest bulk superconducting transition temperatures (Tc) up to 55 K and thus hold the key to the elusive pairing mechanism. Recently, it has been demonstrated that the intrinsic electronic structure of SmFe0.92Co0.08AsO (Tc = 18 K) is highly nontrivial and consists of multiple band-edge singularities in close proximity to the Fermi level. However, it remains unclear whether these singularities are generic to the REFeAsO-type materials and if so, whether their exact topology is responsible for the aforementioned record Tc. In this work, we use angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) to investigate the inherent electronic structure of the NdFeAsO0.6F0.4 compound with a twice higher Tc = 38 K. We find a similarly singular Fermi surface and further demonstrate that the dramatic enhancement of superconductivity in this compound correlates closely with the fine-tuning of one of the band-edge singularities to within a fraction of the superconducting energy gap Δ below the Fermi level. Our results provide compelling evidence that the band-structure singularities near the Fermi level in the iron-based superconductors must be explicitly accounted for in any attempt to understand the mechanism of superconducting pairing in these materials.

High-temperature superconductivity from fine-tuning of Fermi-surface singularities in iron oxypnictides

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Charnukha, A.; Evtushinsky, D. V.; Matt, C. E.; Xu, N.; Shi, M.; Büchner, B.; Zhigadlo, N. D.; Batlogg, B.; Borisenko, S. V.

2015-12-01

In the family of the iron-based superconductors, the REFeAsO-type compounds (with RE being a rare-earth metal) exhibit the highest bulk superconducting transition temperatures (Tc) up to 55 K and thus hold the key to the elusive pairing mechanism. Recently, it has been demonstrated that the intrinsic electronic structure of SmFe0.92Co0.08AsO (Tc = 18 K) is highly nontrivial and consists of multiple band-edge singularities in close proximity to the Fermi level. However, it remains unclear whether these singularities are generic to the REFeAsO-type materials and if so, whether their exact topology is responsible for the aforementioned record Tc. In this work, we use angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) to investigate the inherent electronic structure of the NdFeAsO0.6F0.4 compound with a twice higher Tc = 38 K. We find a similarly singular Fermi surface and further demonstrate that the dramatic enhancement of superconductivity in this compound correlates closely with the fine-tuning of one of the band-edge singularities to within a fraction of the superconducting energy gap Δ below the Fermi level. Our results provide compelling evidence that the band-structure singularities near the Fermi level in the iron-based superconductors must be explicitly accounted for in any attempt to understand the mechanism of superconducting pairing in these materials.

Microwave photonics with superconducting quantum circuits

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gu, Xiu; Kockum, Anton Frisk; Miranowicz, Adam; Liu, Yu-xi; Nori, Franco

2017-11-01

In the past 20 years, impressive progress has been made both experimentally and theoretically in superconducting quantum circuits, which provide a platform for manipulating microwave photons. This emerging field of superconducting quantum microwave circuits has been driven by many new interesting phenomena in microwave photonics and quantum information processing. For instance, the interaction between superconducting quantum circuits and single microwave photons can reach the regimes of strong, ultra-strong, and even deep-strong coupling. Many higher-order effects, unusual and less familiar in traditional cavity quantum electrodynamics with natural atoms, have been experimentally observed, e.g., giant Kerr effects, multi-photon processes, and single-atom induced bistability of microwave photons. These developments may lead to improved understanding of the counterintuitive properties of quantum mechanics, and speed up applications ranging from microwave photonics to superconducting quantum information processing. In this article, we review experimental and theoretical progress in microwave photonics with superconducting quantum circuits. We hope that this global review can provide a useful roadmap for this rapidly developing field.

Impurity bound states in fully gapped d-wave superconductors with subdominant order parameters

PubMed Central

Mashkoori, Mahdi; Björnson, Kristofer; Black-Schaffer, Annica M.

2017-01-01

Impurities in superconductors and their induced bound states are important both for engineering novel states such as Majorana zero-energy modes and for probing bulk properties of the superconducting state. The high-temperature cuprates offer a clear advantage in a much larger superconducting order parameter, but the nodal energy spectrum of a pure d-wave superconductor only allows virtual bound states. Fully gapped d-wave superconducting states have, however, been proposed in several cuprate systems thanks to subdominant order parameters producing d + is- or d + id′-wave superconducting states. Here we study both magnetic and potential impurities in these fully gapped d-wave superconductors. Using analytical T-matrix and complementary numerical tight-binding lattice calculations, we show that magnetic and potential impurities behave fundamentally different in d + is- and d + id′-wave superconductors. In a d + is-wave superconductor, there are no bound states for potential impurities, while a magnetic impurity produces one pair of bound states, with a zero-energy level crossing at a finite scattering strength. On the other hand, a d + id′-wave symmetry always gives rise to two pairs of bound states and only produce a reachable zero-energy level crossing if the normal state has a strong particle-hole asymmetry. PMID:28281570

Magnetic penetration depth in the organic superconductor κ-[BEDT-TTF]2Cu[NCS]2

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harshman, D. R.; Kleiman, R. N.; Haddon, R. C.; Chichester-Hicks, S. V.; Kaplan, M. L.; Rupp, L. W., Jr.; Pfiz, T.; Williams, D. Ll.; Mitzi, D. B.

1990-03-01

We report the first direct measurement of the effective magnetic penetration depth in oriented single crystals of κ-[BEDT-TTF]2Cu[NCS]2, with Tc(5 G)~=9 K. Results yield an effective in-plane value of λbceff(0)~=9800 Å (for Hext~=3 kG), and a temperature dependence consistent with conventional s-wave pairing. Comparison with the London penetration depth, λL(0) (estimated to be ~=5100 Å), indicates a tendency toward dirty-limit superconductivity, with the ratio of coherence length over mean free path of ξbc0/lbc~=2.7. From our results, it appears unnecessary to invoke any unconventional pairing schemes to explain the superconductivity in this material.

Gate-Induced Interfacial Superconductivity in 1T-SnSe2.

PubMed

Zeng, Junwen; Liu, Erfu; Fu, Yajun; Chen, Zhuoyu; Pan, Chen; Wang, Chenyu; Wang, Miao; Wang, Yaojia; Xu, Kang; Cai, Songhua; Yan, Xingxu; Wang, Yu; Liu, Xiaowei; Wang, Peng; Liang, Shi-Jun; Cui, Yi; Hwang, Harold Y; Yuan, Hongtao; Miao, Feng

2018-02-14

Layered metal chalcogenide materials provide a versatile platform to investigate emergent phenomena and two-dimensional (2D) superconductivity at/near the atomically thin limit. In particular, gate-induced interfacial superconductivity realized by the use of an electric-double-layer transistor (EDLT) has greatly extended the capability to electrically induce superconductivity in oxides, nitrides, and transition metal chalcogenides and enable one to explore new physics, such as the Ising pairing mechanism. Exploiting gate-induced superconductivity in various materials can provide us with additional platforms to understand emergent interfacial superconductivity. Here, we report the discovery of gate-induced 2D superconductivity in layered 1T-SnSe 2 , a typical member of the main-group metal dichalcogenide (MDC) family, using an EDLT gating geometry. A superconducting transition temperature T c ≈ 3.9 K was demonstrated at the EDL interface. The 2D nature of the superconductivity therein was further confirmed based on (1) a 2D Tinkham description of the angle-dependent upper critical field B c2 , (2) the existence of a quantum creep state as well as a large ratio of the coherence length to the thickness of superconductivity. Interestingly, the in-plane B c2 approaching zero temperature was found to be 2-3 times higher than the Pauli limit, which might be related to an electric field-modulated spin-orbit interaction. Such results provide a new perspective to expand the material matrix available for gate-induced 2D superconductivity and the fundamental understanding of interfacial superconductivity.

NASA Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology Summer Workshop. Volume 10: Basic research panel

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1975-01-01

Possible research experiments using the space transportation system are identified based on user requirements. Opportunity driven research areas include quantum electronics, cryogenics system technology, superconducting devices and detectors, and photo-induced reactions. Mission driven research requirements were examined and ranked based on inputs from the user group.

Superconductivity, pairing symmetry, and disorder in the doped topological insulator Sn 1 - x In x Te for x ≥ 0.10

DOE PAGES

Smylie, M. P.; Claus, H.; Kwok, W. -K.; ...

2018-01-19

The temperature dependence of the London penetration depth Δλ(T) in the superconducting doped topological crystalline insulator Sn 1-xIn x Te was measured down to 450 mK for two different doping levels, x ≈ 0.45 (optimally doped) and x ≈ 0.10 (underdoped), bookending the range of cubic phase in the compound. The results indicate no deviation from fully gapped BCS-like behavior, eliminating several candidate unconventional gap structures. Critical field values below 1 K and other superconducting parameters are also presented. The introduction of disorder by repeated particle irradiation with 5 MeV protons does not enhance T c, indicating that ferroelectric interactionsmore » do not compete with superconductivity.« less

Superconductivity, pairing symmetry, and disorder in the doped topological insulator Sn 1 - x In x Te for x ≥ 0.10

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Smylie, M. P.; Claus, H.; Kwok, W. -K.

The temperature dependence of the London penetration depth Δλ(T) in the superconducting doped topological crystalline insulator Sn 1-xIn x Te was measured down to 450 mK for two different doping levels, x ≈ 0.45 (optimally doped) and x ≈ 0.10 (underdoped), bookending the range of cubic phase in the compound. The results indicate no deviation from fully gapped BCS-like behavior, eliminating several candidate unconventional gap structures. Critical field values below 1 K and other superconducting parameters are also presented. The introduction of disorder by repeated particle irradiation with 5 MeV protons does not enhance T c, indicating that ferroelectric interactionsmore » do not compete with superconductivity.« less

Superconductivity, Pairing Symmetry, and Disorder in the Doped Topological Insulator Sn 1-xIn xTe for x >= 0.10.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Smylie, M. P.; Claus, H.; Kwok, W. -K.

The temperature dependence of the London penetration depth Delta lambda(T) in the superconducting doped topological crystalline insulator Sn1-xInxTe was measured down to 450 mK for two different doping levels, x approximate to 0.45 (optimally doped) and x approximate to 0.10 (underdoped), bookending the range of cubic phase in the compound. The results indicate no deviation from fully gapped BCS-like behavior, eliminating several candidate unconventional gap structures. Critical field values below 1 K and other superconducting parameters are also presented. The introduction of disorder by repeated particle irradiation with 5 MeV protons does not enhance T-c, indicating that ferroelectric interactions domore » not compete with superconductivity.« less

Pairing from strong repulsion in triangular lattice Hubbard model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Shang-Shun; Zhu, Wei; Batista, Cristian D.

2018-04-01

We propose a pairing mechanism between holes in the dilute limit of doped frustrated Mott insulators. Hole pairing arises from a hole-hole-magnon three-body bound state. This pairing mechanism has its roots on single-hole kinetic energy frustration, which favors antiferromagnetic (AFM) correlations around the hole. We demonstrate that the AFM polaron (hole-magnon bound state) produced by a single hole propagating on a field-induced polarized background is strong enough to bind a second hole. The effective interaction between these three-body bound states is repulsive, implying that this pairing mechanism is relevant for superconductivity.

Charge Fluctuations in the NdO1-xFxBiS2 Superconductors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Athauda, Anushika; Mizuguchi, Yoshikazu; Nagao, Masanori; Neuefeind, Joerg; Louca, Despina

2017-12-01

The local atomic structure of superconducting NdO1-xFxBiS2 (x = 0.2 and 0.4) is investigated using neutron diffraction and the pair density function analysis technique. In the non-superconducting x = 0.2 composition, ferrodistortive displacements of the pyramidal sulfur ions break the tetragonal symmetry and a superlattice structure emerges with peaks appearing at h + k odd reflections superimposed on the even reflections of the P4/nmm symmetry. In the superconducting x = 0.4 composition, similar ferrodistortive displacements are observed but with different magnitudes coupled with in-plane Bi distortions which are indicative of charge fluctuations.

Doping dependence of low-energy quasiparticle excitations in superconducting Bi2212.

PubMed

Ino, Akihiro; Anzai, Hiroaki; Arita, Masashi; Namatame, Hirofumi; Taniguchi, Masaki; Ishikado, Motoyuki; Fujita, Kazuhiro; Ishida, Shigeyuki; Uchida, Shinichi

2013-12-05

: The doping-dependent evolution of the d-wave superconducting state is studied from the perspective of the angle-resolved photoemission spectra of a high-Tc cuprate, Bi2Sr2CaCu2 O8+δ (Bi2212). The anisotropic evolution of the energy gap for Bogoliubov quasiparticles is parametrized by critical temperature and superfluid density. The renormalization of nodal quasiparticles is evaluated in terms of mass enhancement spectra. These quantities shed light on the strong coupling nature of electron pairing and the impact of forward elastic or inelastic scatterings. We suggest that the quasiparticle excitations in the superconducting cuprates are profoundly affected by doping-dependent screening.

Chiral d -wave superconductivity in a triangular surface lattice mediated by long-range interaction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cao, Xiaodong; Ayral, Thomas; Zhong, Zhicheng; Parcollet, Olivier; Manske, Dirk; Hansmann, Philipp

2018-04-01

Adatom systems on the Si(111) surface have recently attracted an increasing attention as strongly correlated systems with a rich phase diagram. We study these materials by a single band model on the triangular lattice, including 1 /r long-range interaction. Employing the recently proposed TRILEX method, we find an unconventional superconducting phase of chiral d -wave symmetry in hole-doped systems. Contrary to usual scenarios where charge and spin fluctuations are seen to compete, here the superconductivity is driven simultaneously by both charge and spin fluctuations and crucially relies on the presence of the long-range tail of the interaction. We provide an analysis of the relevant collective bosonic modes and predict how a cumulative charge and spin paring mechanism leads to superconductivity in doped silicon adatom materials.

Scanning laser microscope for imaging nanostructured superconductors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ishida, Takekazu; Arai, Kohei; Akita, Yukio; Miyanari, Mitsunori; Minami, Yusuke; Yotsuya, Tsutomu; Kato, Masaru; Satoh, Kazuo; Uno, Mayumi; Shimakage, Hisashi; Miki, Shigehito; Wang, Zhen

2010-10-01

The nanofabrication of superconductors yields various interesting features in superconducting properties. A variety of different imaging techniques have been developed for probing the local superconducting profiles. A scanning pulsed laser microscope has been developed by the combination of the XYZ piezo-driven stages and an optical fiber with an aspheric focusing lens. The scanning laser microscope is used to understand the position-dependent properties of a superconducting MgB 2 stripline of length 100 μm and width of 3 μm under constant bias current. Our results show that the superconducting stripline can clearly be seen in the contour image of the scanning laser microscope on the signal voltage. It is suggested from the observed image that the inhomogeneity is relevant in specifying the operating conditions such as detection efficiency of the sensor.

Signatures of pair-density wave order via measurement of the current-phase relation in La2-xBaxCuO4 Josephson junctions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hamilton, David; Weis, Adam; Gu, Genda; van Harlingen, Dale

La2-xBaxCuO4 (LBCO) exhibits a sharp drop in the transition temperature near x = 1 / 8 doping. In this regime, charge, spin and superconducting orders are intertwined and superconductivity is believed to exist in a pair-density wave (PDW) state, an ordered stripe phase characterized by sign changes in the superconducting order parameter between adjacent stripes. We present direct measurements of the current-phase relation (CPR) of Josephson junctions patterned onto crystals of LBCO at x = 1 / 8 and x = 0 . 155 (optimal doping) using a phase-sensitive Josephson interferometry technique. In contrast to the approximately sinusoidal CPR observed at optimal doping, we find the proportion of higher harmonics in the CPR increases at x = 1 / 8 doping, consistent with the formation of a PDW state. In parallel, we are carrying out measurements of the resistance noise in thin films of LBCO of various doping levels to identify features that signify the onset of charge order and changes in the dynamics of charge stripes.

Lessons learned from twenty-year operation of the Large Helical Device poloidal coils made from cable-in-conduit conductors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Takahata, Kazuya; Moriuchi, Sadatomo; Ooba, Kouki; Takami, Shigeyuki; Iwamoto, Akifumi; Mito, Toshiyuki; Imagawa, Shinsaku

2018-04-01

The Large Helical Device (LHD) superconducting magnet system consists of two pairs of helical coils and three pairs of poloidal coils. The poloidal coils use cable-in-conduit (CIC) conductors, which have now been adopted in many fusion devices, with forced cooling by supercritical helium. The poloidal coils were first energized with the helical coils on March 27, 1998. Since that time, the coils have experienced 54,600 h of steady cooling, 10,600 h of excitation operation, and nineteen thermal cycles for twenty years. During this period, no superconducting-to-normal transition of the conductors has been observed. The stable operation of the poloidal coils demonstrates that a CIC conductor is suited to large-scale superconducting magnets. The AC loss has remained constant, even though a slight decrease was observed in the early phase of operation. The hydraulic characteristics have been maintained without obstruction over the entire period of steady cooling. The experience gained from twenty years of operation has also provided lessons regarding malfunctions of peripheral equipment.

Experimental evidence for s-wave pairing symmetry in superconducting Cu(x)Bi2Se3 single crystals using a scanning tunneling microscope.

PubMed

Levy, Niv; Zhang, Tong; Ha, Jeonghoon; Sharifi, Fred; Talin, A Alec; Kuk, Young; Stroscio, Joseph A

2013-03-15

Topological superconductors represent a newly predicted phase of matter that is topologically distinct from conventional superconducting condensates of Cooper pairs. As a manifestation of their topological character, topological superconductors support solid-state realizations of Majorana fermions at their boundaries. The recently discovered superconductor Cu(x)Bi(2)Se(3) has been theoretically proposed as an odd-parity superconductor in the time-reversal-invariant topological superconductor class, and point-contact spectroscopy measurements have reported the observation of zero-bias conductance peaks corresponding to Majorana states in this material. Here we report scanning tunneling microscopy measurements of the superconducting energy gap in Cu(x)Bi(2)Se(3) as a function of spatial position and applied magnetic field. The tunneling spectrum shows that the density of states at the Fermi level is fully gapped without any in-gap states. The spectrum is well described by the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer theory with a momentum independent order parameter, which suggests that Cu(x)Bi(2)Se(3) is a classical s-wave superconductor contrary to previous expectations and measurements.

Scrutinizing the double superconducting gaps and strong coupling pairing in (Li1−xFex)OHFeSe

PubMed Central

Du, Zengyi; Yang, Xiong; Lin, Hai; Fang, Delong; Du, Guan; Xing, Jie; Yang, Huan; Zhu, Xiyu; Wen, Hai-Hu

2016-01-01

In the field of iron-based superconductors, one of the frontier studies is about the pairing mechanism. The recently discovered (Li1−xFex)OHFeSe superconductor with the transition temperature of about 40 K provides a good platform to check the origin of double superconducting gaps and high transition temperature in the monolayer FeSe thin film. Here we report a scanning tunnelling spectroscopy study on the (Li1−xFex)OHFeSe single crystals. The tunnelling spectrum mimics that of the monolayer FeSe thin film and shows double gaps at about 14.3 and 8.6 meV. Further analysis based on the quasiparticle interference allows us to rule out the d-wave gap, and for the first time assign the larger (smaller) gap to the outer (inner) Fermi pockets (after folding) associating with the dxy (dxz/dyz) orbitals, respectively. The gap ratio amounts to 8.7, which demonstrates the strong coupling mechanism in the present superconducting system. PMID:26822281

A graph-theoretical representation of multiphoton resonance processes in superconducting quantum circuits

DOE PAGES

Jooya, Hossein Z.; Reihani, Kamran; Chu, Shih-I

2016-11-21

We propose a graph-theoretical formalism to study generic circuit quantum electrodynamics systems consisting of a two level qubit coupled with a single-mode resonator in arbitrary coupling strength regimes beyond rotating-wave approximation. We define colored-weighted graphs, and introduce different products between them to investigate the dynamics of superconducting qubits in transverse, longitudinal, and bidirectional coupling schemes. In conclusion, the intuitive and predictive picture provided by this method, and the simplicity of the mathematical construction, are demonstrated with some numerical studies of the multiphoton resonance processes and quantum interference phenomena for the superconducting qubit systems driven by intense ac fields.

Dissipationless transport of spin-polarized electrons and Cooper pairs in an electron waveguide

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Levy, J.; Annadi, A.; Lu, S.; Cheng, G.; Tylan-Tyler, A.; Briggeman, M.; Tomczyk, M.; Huang, M.; Pekker, D.; Irvin, P.; Lee, H.; Lee, J.-W.; Eom, C.-B.

Electron systems undergo profound changes in their behavior when constrained to move along a single axis. To date, clean one-dimensional (1D) electron transport has only been observed in carbon-based nanotubes and nanoribbons, and compound semiconductor nanowires. Complex-oxide heterostructures can possess conductive two-dimensional (2D) interfaces with much richer chemistries and properties, e.g., superconductivity, but with mobilities that appear to preclude ballistic transport in 1D. Here we show that nearly ideal 1D electron waveguides exhibiting ballistic transport of electrons and non-superconducting Cooper pairs can be formed at the interface between the two band insulators LaAlO3 and SrTiO3. The electron waveguides possess gate and magnetic-field selectable spin and charge degrees of freedom, and can be tuned to the one-dimensional limit of a single spin-polarized quantum channel. The strong attractive electron-electron interactions enable a new mode of dissipationless transport of electron pairs that is not superconducting. The selectable spin and subband quantum numbers of these electron waveguides may be useful for quantum simulation, quantum informatio We gratefully acknowledge financial support from ONR N00014-15-1-2847 (JL), AFOSR (FA9550-15-1-0334 (CBE) and FA9550-12-1-0057 (JL, CBE)), AOARD FA2386-15-1-4046 (CBE) and NSF (DMR-1104191 (JL), DMR-1124131 (CBE, JL) and DMR-1234096 (CBE)).

Enhanced spin pumping into superconductors provides evidence for superconducting pure spin currents

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jeon, Kun-Rok; Ciccarelli, Chiara; Ferguson, Andrew J.; Kurebayashi, Hidekazu; Cohen, Lesley F.; Montiel, Xavier; Eschrig, Matthias; Robinson, Jason W. A.; Blamire, Mark G.

2018-06-01

Unlike conventional spin-singlet Cooper pairs, spin-triplet pairs can carry spin1,2. Triplet supercurrents were discovered in Josephson junctions with metallic ferromagnet spacers, where spin transport can occur only within the ferromagnet and in conjunction with a charge current. Ferromagnetic resonance injects a pure spin current from a precessing ferromagnet into adjacent non-magnetic materials3,4. For spin-singlet pairing, the ferromagnetic resonance spin pumping efficiency decreases below the critical temperature (Tc) of a coupled superconductor5,6. Here we present ferromagnetic resonance experiments in which spin sink layers with strong spin-orbit coupling are added to the superconductor. Our results show that the induced spin currents, rather than being suppressed, are substantially larger in the superconducting state compared with the normal state; although further work is required to establish the details of the spin transport process, we show that this cannot be mediated by quasiparticles and is most likely a triplet pure spin supercurrent.

Te vacancy-driven superconductivity in orthorhombic molybdenum ditelluride

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cho, Suyeon; Kang, Se Hwang; Yu, Ho Sung; Kim, Hyo Won; Ko, Wonhee; Hwang, Sung Woo; Han, Woo Hyun; Choe, Duk-Hyun; Jung, Young Hwa; Chang, Kee Joo; Lee, Young Hee; Yang, Heejun; Wng Kim, Sung

2017-06-01

Two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have received great attentions because of diverse quantum electronic states such as topological insulating (TI), Weyl semimetallic (WSM) and superconducting states. Recently, the superconducting states emerged in pressurized semimetallic TMDs such as MoTe2 and WTe2 have become one of the central issues due to their predicted WSM states. However, the difficulty in synthetic control of chalcogen vacancies and the ambiguous magneto transport properties have hindered the rigorous study on superconducting and WSM states. Here, we report the emergence of superconductivity at 2.1 K in Te-deficient orthorhombic T d-MoTe2-x with an intrinsic electron-doping, while stoichiometric monoclinic 1T‧-MoTe2 shows no superconducting state down to 10 mK, but exhibits a large magnetoresistance of 32 000% at 2 K in a magnetic field of 14 T originating from nearly perfect compensation of electron and hole carriers. Scanning tunnelling spectroscopy and synchrotron x-ray diffraction combined with theoretical calculations clarify that Te vacancies trigger superconductivity via intrinsic electron doping and the evolution of the T d phase from the 1T‧ phase below 200 K. Unlike the pressure-induced superconducting state of monoclinic MoTe2, this Te vacancy-induced superconductivity is emerged in orthorhombic MoTe2, which is predicted as Weyl semimetal, via electron-doping. This chalcogen vacancy induced-superconductivity provides a new route for cultivating superconducting state together with WSM state in 2D van der Waals materials.

Design of a conduction-cooled 4 T superconducting racetrack for a multi-field coupling measurement system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Yu-Quan; Ma, Li-Zhen; Wu, Wei; Guan, Ming-Zhi; Wu, Bei-Min; Mei, En-Ming; Xin, Can-Jie

2015-12-01

A conduction-cooled superconducting magnet producing a transverse field of 4 T has been designed for a new generation multi-field coupling measurement system, which will be used to study the mechanical behavior of superconducting samples at cryogenic temperatures and intense magnetic fields. A compact cryostat with a two-stage GM cryocooler is designed and manufactured for the superconducting magnet. The magnet is composed of a pair of flat racetrack coils wound by NbTi/Cu superconducting composite wires, a copper and stainless steel combinational former and two Bi2Sr2CaCu2Oy superconducting current leads. The two coils are connected in series and can be powered with a single power supply. In order to support the high stress and attain uniform thermal distribution in the superconducting magnet, a detailed finite element (FE) analysis has been performed. The results indicate that in the operating status the designed magnet system can sufficiently bear the electromagnetic forces and has a uniform temperature distribution. Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (11327802, 11302225), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2014M560820) and National Scholarship Foundation of China (201404910172)

Crossover from impurity-controlled to granular superconductivity in (TMTSF) 2ClO4

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yonezawa, Shingo; Marrache-Kikuchi, Claire A.; Bechgaard, Klaus; Jérome, Denis

2018-01-01

Using a proper cooling procedure, a controllable amount of nonmagnetic structural disorder can be introduced at low temperature in (TMTSF) 2ClO4 . Here we performed simultaneous measurements of transport and magnetic properties of (TMTSF) 2ClO4 in its normal and superconducting states, while finely covering three orders of magnitude of the cooling rate around the anion ordering temperature. Our result reveals, with increasing density of disorder, the existence of a crossover between homogeneous defect-controlled d -wave superconductivity and granular superconductivity. At slow cooling rates, with small amount of disorder, the evolution of superconducting properties is well described with the Abrikosov-Gorkov theory, providing further confirmation of non-s -wave pairing in this compound. In contrast, at fast cooling rates, zero resistance and diamagnetic shielding are achieved through a randomly distributed network of superconducting puddles embedded in a normal conducting background and interconnected by proximity effect coupling. The temperature dependence of the ac complex susceptibility reveals features typical for a network of granular superconductors. This makes (TMTSF) 2ClO4 a model system for granular superconductivity where the grain size and their concentration are tunable within the same sample.

Superconductivity above 100 K in single-layer FeSe films on doped SrTiO3.

PubMed

Ge, Jian-Feng; Liu, Zhi-Long; Liu, Canhua; Gao, Chun-Lei; Qian, Dong; Xue, Qi-Kun; Liu, Ying; Jia, Jin-Feng

2015-03-01

Recent experiments on FeSe films grown on SrTiO3 (STO) suggest that interface effects can be used as a means to reach superconducting critical temperatures (Tc) of up to 80 K (ref. ). This is nearly ten times the Tc of bulk FeSe and higher than the record value of 56 K for known bulk Fe-based superconductors. Together with recent studies of superconductivity at oxide heterostructure interfaces, these results rekindle the long-standing idea that electron pairing at interfaces between two different materials can be tailored to achieve high-temperature superconductivity. Subsequent angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurements of the FeSe/STO system revealed an electronic structure distinct from bulk FeSe (refs , ), with an energy gap vanishing at around 65 K. However, ex situ electrical transport measurements have so far detected zero resistance-the key experimental signature of superconductivity-only below 30 K. Here, we report the observation of superconductivity with Tc above 100 K in the FeSe/STO system by means of in situ four-point probe electrical transport measurements. This finding confirms FeSe/STO as an ideal material for studying high-Tc superconductivity.

Pressure effects on magnetic pair-breaking in Mn- and Eu-substituted BaFe{sub 2}As{sub 2}

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rosa, P. F. S., E-mail: ferrari@ifi.unicamp.br; University of California, Irvine, California 92697-4574; Garitezi, T. M.

2014-05-07

We report a combined study of hydrostatic pressure (P ≤ 25 kbar) and chemical substitution on the magnetic pair-breaking effect in Eu- and Mn-substituted BaFe{sub 2}As{sub 2} single crystals. At ambient pressure, both substitutions suppress the superconducting (SC) transition temperature (T{sub c}) of BaFe{sub 2–x}Co{sub x}As{sub 2} samples slightly under the optimally doped region, indicating the presence of a pair-breaking effect. At low pressures, an increase of T{sub c} is observed for all studied compounds followed by an expected decrease at higher pressures. However, in the Eu dilute system, T{sub c} further increases at higher pressure along with a narrowingmore » of the SC transition, suggesting that a pair-breaking mechanism reminiscent of the Eu Kondo single impurity regime is being suppressed by pressure. Furthermore, Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) measurements indicate the presence of Mn{sup 2+} and Eu{sup 2+} local moments and the microscopic parameters extracted from the ESR analysis reveal that the Abrikosov–Gor'kov expression for magnetic pair-breaking in a conventional sign-preserving superconducting state cannot describe the observed reduction of T{sub c}.« less

Pressure-tuned superconductivity and normal-state behavior in Ba ( Fe 0.943 Co 0.057 ) 2 As 2 near the antiferromagnetic boundary

DOE PAGES

Liu, W.; Wu, Y. F.; Li, X. J.; ...

2018-04-23

Superconductivity in iron pnictides is unconventional and pairing may be mediated by magnetic fluctuations in the Fe sublattice. Pressure is a clean method to explore superconductivity in iron based superconductors by tuning the ground state continuously without introducing disorder. Here we present a systematic high pressure transport study in Ba (Fe 1 - xCo x) 2 As 2 single crystals with x = 0.057, which is near the antiferromagnetic instability. Resistivity ρ = ρ 0 + AT n was studied under applied pressure up to 7.90 GPa. The parameter n approaches a minimum value of n ≈ 1 at amore » critical pressure P c = 3.65 GPa. Near P c, the superconducting transition temperature T c reaches a maximum value of 25.8 K. In addition, the superconducting diamagnetism at 2 K shows a sudden change around the same critical pressure. Finally, these results may be associated with a possible quantum critical point hidden inside the superconducting dome, near optimum T c.« less

Pressure-tuned superconductivity and normal-state behavior in Ba ( Fe 0.943 Co 0.057 ) 2 As 2 near the antiferromagnetic boundary

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Liu, W.; Wu, Y. F.; Li, X. J.

Superconductivity in iron pnictides is unconventional and pairing may be mediated by magnetic fluctuations in the Fe sublattice. Pressure is a clean method to explore superconductivity in iron based superconductors by tuning the ground state continuously without introducing disorder. Here we present a systematic high pressure transport study in Ba (Fe 1 - xCo x) 2 As 2 single crystals with x = 0.057, which is near the antiferromagnetic instability. Resistivity ρ = ρ 0 + AT n was studied under applied pressure up to 7.90 GPa. The parameter n approaches a minimum value of n ≈ 1 at amore » critical pressure P c = 3.65 GPa. Near P c, the superconducting transition temperature T c reaches a maximum value of 25.8 K. In addition, the superconducting diamagnetism at 2 K shows a sudden change around the same critical pressure. Finally, these results may be associated with a possible quantum critical point hidden inside the superconducting dome, near optimum T c.« less

Identifying the chiral d-wave superconductivity by Josephson φ0-states.

PubMed

Liu, Jun-Feng; Xu, Yong; Wang, Jun

2017-03-07

We propose the Josephson junctions linked by a normal metal between a d + id superconductor and another d + id superconductor, a d-wave superconductor, or a s-wave superconductor for identifying the chiral d + id superconductivity. The time-reversal breaking in the chiral d-wave superconducting state is shown to result in a Josephson φ 0 -junction state where the current-phase relation is shifted by a phase φ 0 from the sinusoidal relation, other than 0 and π. The ground-state phase difference φ 0 and the critical current can be used to definitely confirm and read the information about the d + id superconductivity. A smooth evolution from conventional 0-π transitions to tunable φ 0 -states can be observed by changing the relative magnitude of two types of d-wave components in the d + id pairing. On the other hand, the Josephson junction involving the d + id superconductor is also the simplest model to realize a φ 0 - junction, which is useful in superconducting electronics and superconducting quantum computation.

Identifying the chiral d-wave superconductivity by Josephson φ0-states

PubMed Central

Liu, Jun-Feng; Xu, Yong; Wang, Jun

2017-01-01

We propose the Josephson junctions linked by a normal metal between a d + id superconductor and another d + id superconductor, a d-wave superconductor, or a s-wave superconductor for identifying the chiral d + id superconductivity. The time-reversal breaking in the chiral d-wave superconducting state is shown to result in a Josephson φ0-junction state where the current-phase relation is shifted by a phase φ0 from the sinusoidal relation, other than 0 and π. The ground-state phase difference φ0 and the critical current can be used to definitely confirm and read the information about the d + id superconductivity. A smooth evolution from conventional 0-π transitions to tunable φ0-states can be observed by changing the relative magnitude of two types of d-wave components in the d + id pairing. On the other hand, the Josephson junction involving the d + id superconductor is also the simplest model to realize a φ0- junction, which is useful in superconducting electronics and superconducting quantum computation. PMID:28266582

Tuning the band structure and superconductivity in single-layer FeSe by interface engineering.

PubMed

Peng, R; Xu, H C; Tan, S Y; Cao, H Y; Xia, M; Shen, X P; Huang, Z C; Wen, C H P; Song, Q; Zhang, T; Xie, B P; Gong, X G; Feng, D L

2014-09-26

The interface between transition metal compounds provides a rich playground for emergent phenomena. Recently, significantly enhanced superconductivity has been reported for single-layer FeSe on Nb-doped SrTiO3 substrate. Yet it remains mysterious how the interface affects the superconductivity. Here we use in situ angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy to investigate various FeSe-based heterostructures grown by molecular beam epitaxy, and uncover that electronic correlations and superconducting gap-closing temperature (Tg) are tuned by interfacial effects. Tg up to 75 K is observed in extremely tensile-strained single-layer FeSe on Nb-doped BaTiO3, which sets a record high pairing temperature for both Fe-based superconductor and monolayer-thick films, providing a promising prospect on realizing more cost-effective superconducting device. Moreover, our results exclude the direct correlation between superconductivity and tensile strain or the energy of an interfacial phonon mode, and highlight the critical and non-trivial role of FeSe/oxide interface on the high Tg, which provides new clues for understanding its origin.

Texturing of high T(sub c) superconducting polycrystalline fibers/wires by laser-driven directional solidification in an thermal gradient

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Varshney, Usha; Eichelberger, B. Davis, III

1995-01-01

This paper summarizes the technique of laser-driven directional solidification in a controlled thermal gradient of yttria stabilized zirconia core coated Y-Ba-Cu-O materials to produce textured high T(sub c) superconducting polycrystalline fibers/wires with improved critical current densities in the extended range of magnetic fields at temperatures greater than 77 K. The approach involves laser heating to minimize phase segregation by heating very rapidly through the two-phase incongruent melt region to the single phase melt region and directionally solidifying in a controlled thermal gradient to achieve highly textured grains in the fiber axis direction. The technique offers a higher grain growth rate and a lower thermal budget compared with a conventional thermal gradient and is amenable as a continuous process for improving the J(sub c) of high T(sub c) superconducting polycrystalline fibers/wires. The technique has the advantage of suppressing weak-link behavior by orientation of crystals, formation of dense structures with enhanced connectivity, formation of fewer and cleaner grain boundaries, and minimization of phase segregation in the incongruent melt region.

Topological footprints of the Kitaev chain with long-range superconducting pairings at a finite temperature

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bhattacharya, Utso; Dutta, Amit

2018-06-01

We study the one-dimensional Kitaev chain with long-range superconductive pairing terms at a finite temperature where the system is prepared in a mixed state in equilibrium with a heat reservoir maintained at a constant temperature T . In order to probe the footprint of the ground-state topological behavior of the model at finite temperature, we look at two global quantities extracted out of two geometrical constructions: the Uhlmann and the interferometric phase. Interestingly, when the long-range effect dominates, the Uhlmann phase approach fails to reproduce the topological aspects of the model in the pure-state limit; on the other hand, the interferometric phase which has a proper pure state reduction, shows a behavior independent of the ambient temperature.

Green's-function theory of dirty two-band superconductivity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Asano, Yasuhiro; Golubov, Alexander A.

2018-06-01

We study the effects of random nonmagnetic impurities on the superconducting transition temperature Tc in a two-band superconductor, where we assume an equal-time spin-singlet s -wave pair potential in each conduction band and the hybridization between the two bands as well as the band asymmetry. In the clean limit, the phase of hybridization determines the stability of two states, called s++ and s+-. The interband impurity scatterings decrease Tc of the two states exactly in the same manner when time-reversal symmetry is preserved in the Hamiltonian. We find that a superconductor with larger hybridization shows more moderate suppression of Tc. This effect can be explained by the presence of odd-frequency Cooper pairs, which are generated by the band hybridization in the clean limit and are broken by impurities.

Coupling of a high-energy excitation to superconducting quasiparticles in a cuprate from coherent charge fluctuation spectroscopy

PubMed Central

Mansart, Barbara; Lorenzana, José; Mann, Andreas; Odeh, Ahmad; Scarongella, Mariateresa; Chergui, Majed; Carbone, Fabrizio

2013-01-01

Dynamical information on spin degrees of freedom of proteins or solids can be obtained by NMR and electron spin resonance. A technique with similar versatility for charge degrees of freedom and their ultrafast correlations could move the understanding of systems like unconventional superconductors forward. By perturbing the superconducting state in a high-Tc cuprate, using a femtosecond laser pulse, we generate coherent oscillations of the Cooper pair condensate that can be described by an NMR/electron spin resonance formalism. The oscillations are detected by transient broad-band reflectivity and are found to resonate at the typical scale of Mott physics (2.6 eV), suggesting the existence of a nonretarded contribution to the pairing interaction, as in unconventional (non-Migdal–Eliashberg) theories.

Tunnelling spectroscopy of gate-induced superconductivity in MoS2

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Costanzo, Davide; Zhang, Haijing; Reddy, Bojja Aditya; Berger, Helmuth; Morpurgo, Alberto F.

2018-06-01

The ability to gate-induce superconductivity by electrostatic charge accumulation is a recent breakthrough in physics and nanoelectronics. With the exception of LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interfaces, experiments on gate-induced superconductors have been largely confined to resistance measurements, which provide very limited information about the superconducting state. Here, we explore gate-induced superconductivity in MoS2 by performing tunnelling spectroscopy to determine the energy-dependent density of states (DOS) for different levels of electron density n. In the superconducting state, the DOS is strongly suppressed at energy smaller than the gap Δ, which is maximum (Δ 2 meV) for n of 1 × 1014 cm-2 and decreases monotonously for larger n. A perpendicular magnetic field B generates states at E < Δ that fill the gap, but a 20% DOS suppression of superconducting origin unexpectedly persists much above the transport critical field. Conversely, an in-plane field up to 10 T leaves the DOS entirely unchanged. Our measurements exclude that the superconducting state in MoS2 is fully gapped and reveal the presence of a DOS that vanishes linearly with energy, the explanation of which requires going beyond a conventional, purely phonon-driven Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer mechanism.

Probing the superconducting ground state of the rare-earth ternary boride superconductors R RuB2 (R = Lu,Y) using muon-spin rotation and relaxation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barker, J. A. T.; Singh, R. P.; Hillier, A. D.; Paul, D. McK.

2018-03-01

The superconductivity in the rare-earth transition-metal ternary borides R RuB2 (where R =Lu and Y) has been investigated using muon-spin rotation and relaxation. Measurements made in zero field suggest that time-reversal symmetry is preserved upon entering the superconducting state in both materials; a small difference in depolarization is observed above and below the superconducting transition in both compounds, however, this has been attributed to quasistatic magnetic fluctuations. Transverse-field measurements of the flux-line lattice indicate that the superconductivity in both materials is fully gapped, with a conventional s -wave pairing symmetry and BCS-like magnitudes for the zero-temperature gap energies. The electronic properties of the charge carriers in the superconducting state have been calculated, with effective masses m*/me=9.8 ±0.1 and 15.0 ±0.1 in the Lu and Y compounds, respectively, with superconducting carrier densities ns=(2.73 ±0.04 ) ×1028m-3 and (2.17 ±0.02 ) ×1028m-3 . The materials have been classified according to the Uemura scheme for superconductivity, with values for Tc/TF of 1 /(414 ±6 ) and 1 /(304 ±3 ) , implying that the superconductivity may not be entirely conventional in nature.

Superconductivity, pairing symmetry, and disorder in the doped topological insulator Sn 1 - x In x Te for x ≥ 0.10

DOE PAGES

Smylie, M. P.; Claus, H.; Kwok, W. -K.; ...

2018-01-19

In this paper, the temperature dependence of the London penetration depth Δλ(T) in the superconducting doped topological crystalline insulator Sn 1-xIn xTe was measured down to 450 mK for two different doping levels, x ≈ 0.45 (optimally doped) and x ≈ 0.10 (underdoped), bookending the range of cubic phase in the compound. The results indicate no deviation from fully gapped BCS-like behavior, eliminating several candidate unconventional gap structures. Critical field values below 1 K and other superconducting parameters are also presented. Finally, the introduction of disorder by repeated particle irradiation with 5 MeV protons does not enhance T c, indicatingmore » that ferroelectric interactions do not compete with superconductivity.« less

Tunable sub-gap radiation detection with superconducting resonators

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dupré, O.; Benoît, A.; Calvo, M.; Catalano, A.; Goupy, J.; Hoarau, C.; Klein, T.; Le Calvez, K.; Sacépé, B.; Monfardini, A.; Levy-Bertrand, F.

2017-04-01

We have fabricated planar amorphous indium oxide superconducting resonators ({T}{{c}}˜ 2.8 K) that are sensitive to frequency-selective radiation in the range of 7-10 GHz. Those values lay far below twice the superconducting gap that is worth about 200 GHz. The photon detection consists in a shift of the fundamental resonance frequency. We show that the detected frequency can be adjusted by modulating the total length of the superconducting resonator. We attribute those observations to the excitation of higher-order resonance modes. The coupling between the fundamental lumped and the higher order distributed resonance is due to the kinetic inductance nonlinearity with current. These devices, that we have called sub-gap kinetic inductance detectors, are to be distinguished from the standard kinetic inductance detectors in which quasi-particles are generated when incident light breaks down Cooper pairs.

Superconductivity, pairing symmetry, and disorder in the doped topological insulator Sn 1 - x In x Te for x ≥ 0.10

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Smylie, M. P.; Claus, H.; Kwok, W. -K.

In this paper, the temperature dependence of the London penetration depth Δλ(T) in the superconducting doped topological crystalline insulator Sn 1-xIn xTe was measured down to 450 mK for two different doping levels, x ≈ 0.45 (optimally doped) and x ≈ 0.10 (underdoped), bookending the range of cubic phase in the compound. The results indicate no deviation from fully gapped BCS-like behavior, eliminating several candidate unconventional gap structures. Critical field values below 1 K and other superconducting parameters are also presented. Finally, the introduction of disorder by repeated particle irradiation with 5 MeV protons does not enhance T c, indicatingmore » that ferroelectric interactions do not compete with superconductivity.« less

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Swapan Chattopadhyay

Hurricane Isabel was at category five--the most violent on the Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane strength--when it began threatening the central Atlantic seaboard of the US. Over the course of several days, precautions against the extreme weather conditions were taken across the Jefferson Lab site in south-east Virginia. On 18 September 2003, when Isabel struck North Carolina's Outer Banks and moved northward, directly across the region around the laboratory, the storm was still quite destructive, albeit considerably reduced in strength. The flood surge and trees felled by wind substantially damaged or even devastated buildings and homes, including many belonging to Jeffersonmore » Lab staff members. For the laboratory itself, Isabel delivered an unplanned and severe challenge in another form: a power outage that lasted nearly three-and-a-half days, and which severely tested the robustness of Jefferson Lab's two superconducting machines, the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) and the superconducting radiofrequency ''driver'' accelerator of the laboratory's free-electron laser. Robustness matters greatly for science at a time when microwave superconducting linear accelerators (linacs) are not only being considered, but in some cases already being built for projects such as neutron sources, rare-isotope accelerators, innovative light sources and TeV-scale electron-positron linear colliders. Hurricane Isabel interrupted a several-week-long maintenance shutdown of CEBAF, which serves nuclear and particle physics and represents the world's pioneering large-scale implementation of superconducting radiofrequency (SRF) technology. The racetrack-shaped machine is actually a pair of 500-600 MeV SRF linacs interconnected by recirculation arc beamlines. CEBAF delivers simultaneous beams at up to 6 GeV to three experimental halls. An imminent upgrade will double the energy to 12 GeV and add an extra hall for ''quark confinement'' studies. On a smaller scale, Jefferson Lab's original kilowatt-scale infrared free-electron laser (FEL) is ''driven'' by a high-current cousin of CEBAF, a 70 MeV SRF linac with a high-current injector. The FEL serves multidisciplinary science and technology as the world's highest-average-power source of tunable coherent infrared light. An upgrade to 10 kW is in commissioning--as it was when Isabel began threatening.« less

Chiral superconductors.

PubMed

Kallin, Catherine; Berlinsky, John

2016-05-01

Chiral superconductivity is a striking quantum phenomenon in which an unconventional superconductor spontaneously develops an angular momentum and lowers its free energy by eliminating nodes in the gap. It is a topologically non-trivial state and, as such, exhibits distinctive topological modes at surfaces and defects. In this paper we discuss the current theory and experimental results on chiral superconductors, focusing on two of the best-studied systems, Sr2RuO4, which is thought to be a chiral triplet p-wave superconductor, and UPt3, which has two low-temperature superconducting phases (in zero magnetic field), the lower of which is believed to be chiral triplet f-wave. Other systems that may exhibit chiral superconductivity are also discussed. Key signatures of chiral superconductivity are surface currents and chiral Majorana modes, Majorana states in vortex cores, and the possibility of half-flux quantum vortices in the case of triplet pairing. Experimental evidence for chiral superconductivity from μSR, NMR, strain, polar Kerr effect and Josephson tunneling experiments are discussed.

Transport spectroscopy of induced superconductivity in the three-dimensional topological insulator HgTe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wiedenmann, Jonas; Liebhaber, Eva; Kübert, Johannes; Bocquillon, Erwann; Burset, Pablo; Ames, Christopher; Buhmann, Hartmut; Klapwijk, Teun M.; Molenkamp, Laurens W.

2017-10-01

The proximity-induced superconducting state in the three-dimensional topological insulator HgTe has been studied using electronic transport of a normal metal-superconducting point contact as a spectroscopic tool (Andreev point-contact spectroscopy). By analyzing the conductance as a function of voltage for various temperatures, magnetic fields, and gate voltages, we find evidence, in equilibrium, for an induced order parameter in HgTe of 70 µeV and a niobium order parameter of 1.1 meV. To understand the full conductance curve as a function of applied voltage we suggest a non-equilibrium-driven transformation of the quantum transport process where the relevant scattering region and equilibrium reservoirs change with voltage. This change implies that the spectroscopy probes the superconducting correlations at different positions in the sample, depending on the bias voltage.

Circulation and Directional Amplification in the Josephson Parametric Converter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hatridge, Michael

Nonreciprocal transport and directional amplification of weak microwave signals are fundamental ingredients in performing efficient measurements of quantum states of flying microwave light. This challenge has been partly met, as quantum-limited amplification is now regularly achieved with parametrically-driven, Josephson-junction based superconducting circuits. However, these devices are typically non-directional, requiring external circulators to separate incoming and outgoing signals. Recently this limitation has been overcome by several proposals and experimental realizations of both directional amplifiers and circulators based on interference between several parametric processes in a single device. This new class of multi-parametrically driven devices holds the promise of achieving a variety of desirable characteristics simultaneously- directionality, reduced gain-bandwidth constraints and quantum-limited added noise, and are good candidates for on-chip integration with other superconducting circuits such as qubits.

Hysteretic Flux Response and Nondegenerate Gain of Flux-Driven Josephson Parametric Amplifiers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pogorzalek, Stefan; Fedorov, Kirill G.; Zhong, Ling; Goetz, Jan; Wulschner, Friedrich; Fischer, Michael; Eder, Peter; Xie, Edwar; Inomata, Kunihiro; Yamamoto, Tsuyoshi; Nakamura, Yasunobu; Marx, Achim; Deppe, Frank; Gross, Rudolf

2017-08-01

Josephson parametric amplifiers (JPAs) have become key devices in quantum science and technology with superconducting circuits. In particular, they can be utilized as quantum-limited amplifiers or as a source of squeezed microwave fields. Here, we report on the detailed measurements of five flux-driven JPAs exhibiting a hysteretic dependence of the resonant frequency on the applied magnetic flux. We model the measured characteristics by numerical simulations based on the two-dimensional potential landscape of the dc superconducting quantum interference devices, which provide the JPA nonlinearity for a nonzero screening parameter βL>0 and demonstrate excellent agreement between the numerical results and the experimental data. Furthermore, we study the nondegenerate response of different JPAs and accurately describe the experimental results with our theory.

Quantum teleportation and entanglement swapping of electron spins in superconducting hybrid structures

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bubanja, Vladimir, E-mail: vladimir.bubanja@callaghaninnovation.govt.nz

2015-06-15

We present schemes for quantum teleportation and entanglement swapping of electronic spin states in hybrid superconductor–normal-metal systems. The proposed schemes employ subgap transport whereby the lowest order processes involve Cooper pair-electron and double Cooper-pair cotunneling in quantum teleportation and entanglement swapping protocols, respectively. The competition between elastic cotunneling and Cooper-pair splitting results in the success probability of 25% in both cases. Described implementations of these protocols are within reach of present-day experimental techniques.

Interlayer tunneling in a strongly correlated electron-phonon system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mierzejewski, M.; Zieliński, J.

1996-10-01

We discuss the role of interlayer tunneling for superconducting properties of strongly correlated (U-->∞ limit) two-layer Hubbard model coupled to phonons. Strong correlations are taken into account within the mean-field approximation for auxiliary boson fields. To consider phonon-mediated and interlayer tunneling contribution to superconductivity on equal footing we incorporate the tunneling term into the generalized Eliashberg equations. This leads to the modification of the phonon-induced pairing kernel and implies a pronounced enhancement of the superconducting transition temperature in the d-wave channel for moderate doping. In numerical calculations the two-dimensional band structure has been explicitly taken into account. The relevance of our results for high-temperature superconductors is briefly discussed.

Robust odd-parity superconductivity in the doped topological insulator Nb x Bi 2 Se 3

DOE PAGES

Smylie, M. P.; Willa, K.; Claus, H.; ...

2017-09-15

We present resistivity and magnetization measurements on proton-irradiated crystals demonstrating that the superconducting state in the doped topological insulator Nb xBi 2Se 3 (x = 0.25) is surprisingly robust against disorder-induced electron scattering. The superconducting transition temperature Tc decreases without indication of saturation with increasing defect concentration, and the corresponding scattering rates far surpass expectations based on conventional theory. The low-temperature variation of the London penetration depth Δλ(T) follows a power law [Δλ(T)~T 2] indicating the presence of symmetry-protected point nodes. Lastly, our results are consistent with the proposed robust nematic E u pairing state in this material.

Robust odd-parity superconductivity in the doped topological insulator NbxBi2Se3

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smylie, M. P.; Willa, K.; Claus, H.; Snezhko, A.; Martin, I.; Kwok, W.-K.; Qiu, Y.; Hor, Y. S.; Bokari, E.; Niraula, P.; Kayani, A.; Mishra, V.; Welp, U.

2017-09-01

We present resistivity and magnetization measurements on proton-irradiated crystals demonstrating that the superconducting state in the doped topological insulator NbxBi2Se3 (x =0.25 ) is surprisingly robust against disorder-induced electron scattering. The superconducting transition temperature Tc decreases without indication of saturation with increasing defect concentration, and the corresponding scattering rates far surpass expectations based on conventional theory. The low-temperature variation of the London penetration depth Δ λ (T ) follows a power law [Δ λ (T ) ˜T2] indicating the presence of symmetry-protected point nodes. Our results are consistent with the proposed robust nematic Eu pairing state in this material.

Microwave control of the superconducting proximity effect and minigap in magnetic and normal metals

PubMed Central

Linder, Jacob; Amundsen, Morten; Ouassou, Jabir Ali

2016-01-01

We demonstrate theoretically that microwave radiation applied to superconducting proximity structures controls the minigap and other spectral features in the density of states of normal and magnetic metals, respectively. Considering both a bilayer and Josephson junction geometry, we show that microwaves with frequency ω qualitatively alters the spectral properties of the system: inducing a series of resonances, controlling the minigap size Emg, and even replacing the minigap with a strong peak of quasiparticle accumulation at zero energy when ω = Emg. The interaction between light and Cooper pairs may thus open a route to active control of quantum coherent phenomena in superconducting proximity structures. PMID:27982128

Doping dependence of low-energy quasiparticle excitations in superconducting Bi2212

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

The doping-dependent evolution of the d-wave superconducting state is studied from the perspective of the angle-resolved photoemission spectra of a high-Tc cuprate, Bi2Sr2CaCu2 O8+δ (Bi2212). The anisotropic evolution of the energy gap for Bogoliubov quasiparticles is parametrized by critical temperature and superfluid density. The renormalization of nodal quasiparticles is evaluated in terms of mass enhancement spectra. These quantities shed light on the strong coupling nature of electron pairing and the impact of forward elastic or inelastic scatterings. We suggest that the quasiparticle excitations in the superconducting cuprates are profoundly affected by doping-dependent screening. PMID:24314035

Dissipation-driven phase transitions in superconducting wires

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lobos, Alejandro; Iucci, Aníbal; Müller, Markus; Giamarchi, Thierry

2010-03-01

Narrow superconducting wires with diameter dξ0 (where ξ0 is the bulk superconducting coherence length) are quasi-1D systems in which fluctuations of the order parameter strongly affect low-temperature properties. Indeed, fluctuations cause the magnitude of the order parameter to temporarily vanish at some point along the wire, allowing its phase to slip by 2π, and to produce finite resistivity for all temperatures below Tc. In this work, we show that a weak coupling to a diffusive metallic film reinforces superconductivity in the wire through a quench of phase fluctuations. We analyze the effective phase-only action of the system by a perturbative renormalization-group and a self-consistent variational approach to obtain the critical points and phases at T=0. We predict a quantum phase transition towards a superconducting phase with long-range order as a function of the wire stiffness and coupling to the metal. Finally we discuss implications for the DC resistivity of the wire.

Superconductivity in Weyl semimetal candidate MoTe2.

PubMed

Qi, Yanpeng; Naumov, Pavel G; Ali, Mazhar N; Rajamathi, Catherine R; Schnelle, Walter; Barkalov, Oleg; Hanfland, Michael; Wu, Shu-Chun; Shekhar, Chandra; Sun, Yan; Süß, Vicky; Schmidt, Marcus; Schwarz, Ulrich; Pippel, Eckhard; Werner, Peter; Hillebrand, Reinald; Förster, Tobias; Kampert, Erik; Parkin, Stuart; Cava, R J; Felser, Claudia; Yan, Binghai; Medvedev, Sergey A

2016-03-14

Transition metal dichalcogenides have attracted research interest over the last few decades due to their interesting structural chemistry, unusual electronic properties, rich intercalation chemistry and wide spectrum of potential applications. Despite the fact that the majority of related research focuses on semiconducting transition-metal dichalcogenides (for example, MoS2), recently discovered unexpected properties of WTe2 are provoking strong interest in semimetallic transition metal dichalcogenides featuring large magnetoresistance, pressure-driven superconductivity and Weyl semimetal states. We investigate the sister compound of WTe2, MoTe2, predicted to be a Weyl semimetal and a quantum spin Hall insulator in bulk and monolayer form, respectively. We find that bulk MoTe2 exhibits superconductivity with a transition temperature of 0.10 K. Application of external pressure dramatically enhances the transition temperature up to maximum value of 8.2 K at 11.7 GPa. The observed dome-shaped superconductivity phase diagram provides insights into the interplay between superconductivity and topological physics.

Superconductivity in Weyl semimetal candidate MoTe2

PubMed Central

Qi, Yanpeng; Naumov, Pavel G.; Ali, Mazhar N.; Rajamathi, Catherine R.; Schnelle, Walter; Barkalov, Oleg; Hanfland, Michael; Wu, Shu-Chun; Shekhar, Chandra; Sun, Yan; Süß, Vicky; Schmidt, Marcus; Schwarz, Ulrich; Pippel, Eckhard; Werner, Peter; Hillebrand, Reinald; Förster, Tobias; Kampert, Erik; Parkin, Stuart; Cava, R. J.; Felser, Claudia; Yan, Binghai; Medvedev, Sergey A.

2016-01-01

Transition metal dichalcogenides have attracted research interest over the last few decades due to their interesting structural chemistry, unusual electronic properties, rich intercalation chemistry and wide spectrum of potential applications. Despite the fact that the majority of related research focuses on semiconducting transition-metal dichalcogenides (for example, MoS2), recently discovered unexpected properties of WTe2 are provoking strong interest in semimetallic transition metal dichalcogenides featuring large magnetoresistance, pressure-driven superconductivity and Weyl semimetal states. We investigate the sister compound of WTe2, MoTe2, predicted to be a Weyl semimetal and a quantum spin Hall insulator in bulk and monolayer form, respectively. We find that bulk MoTe2 exhibits superconductivity with a transition temperature of 0.10 K. Application of external pressure dramatically enhances the transition temperature up to maximum value of 8.2 K at 11.7 GPa. The observed dome-shaped superconductivity phase diagram provides insights into the interplay between superconductivity and topological physics. PMID:26972450

Superconducting thermal neutron detectors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Merlo, V.; Pietropaolo, A.; Celentano, G.; Cirillo, M.; Lucci, M.; Ottaviani, I.; Salvato, M.; Scherillo, A.; Schooneveld, E. M.; Vannozzi, A.

2016-09-01

A neutron detection concept is presented that is based on superconductive niobium nitride (NbN) strips coated by a boron (B) layer. The working principle is well described by a hot spot mechanism: upon the occurrence of the nuclear reactions n + 10B → α + 7Li + 2.8 MeV, the energy released by the secondary particles into the strip induces a superconducting-normal state transition. The latter is recognized as a voltage signal which is the evidence of the incident neutron. The above described detection principle has been experimentally assessed and verified by irradiating the samples with a pulsed neutron beam at the ISIS spallation neutron source (UK). It is found that the boron coated superconducting strips, kept at a temperature T below 11K and current-biased below the critical current IC, are driven into the normal state upon thermal neutron irradiation. Measurements on the counting rate of the device are presented and the basic physical features of the detector are discussed and compared to those of a borated Nb superconducting strip.

Study of the model of hole superconductivity in multiple band cases and its application to transition metals

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hong, X.Q.

1992-01-01

The authors have studied a simple model consisting of a chain of atoms with two atoms per unit cell. This model develops two bands when the inter-cell and intra-cell hopping amplitudes are different. They have found that superconductivity predominantly occurs when the Fermi level is close to the top of the upper band where the wavefunction has antibonding feature both inside the unit cell and between unit cells. Superconductivity occurs only in a restricted parameter range when the Fermi level is close to the top of the lower band because of the repulsive interaction within the unit cell. They findmore » that pair expectation values that 'mix' carriers of both bands can exist when interband interactions other than V12 of Suhl et al are present. But the magnitude of the 'mixed pairs' order parameters is much smaller than that of the intra-band pairs. The V12 of Suhl et al is the most important interband interaction that gives rise to the main features of a two-band model: a single transition temperature and two different gaps. They have used the model of hole superconductivity to study the variation of T(sub c) among transition metal series--the Matthias rules. They have found that the observed T(sub c)'s are consistent with superconductivity of a metal with multiple bands at the Fermi level being caused by the single band with strongest antibonding character at the Fermi level. When the Fermi level is the lower part of a band, there is no T(sub c). As the band is gradually filled, T(sub c) rises, passes through a maximum, then drops to zero when the band is full. This characteristic feature is independent of any fine structure of the band. The position of the peak and the width of the peak are correlated. Quantitative agreement with the experimental results is obtained by choosing parameters of onsite Coulomb interaction U, modulated hopping term Delta-t, and nearest neighbor repulsion V to fit the magnitude of T(sub c) and the positions of experimental peaks.« less

Topological order and thermal equilibrium in polariton condensates

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Caputo, Davide; Ballarini, Dario; Dagvadorj, Galbadrakh; Sánchez Muñoz, Carlos; de Giorgi, Milena; Dominici, Lorenzo; West, Kenneth; Pfeiffer, Loren N.; Gigli, Giuseppe; Laussy, Fabrice P.; Szymańska, Marzena H.; Sanvitto, Daniele

2018-02-01

The Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless phase transition from a disordered to a quasi-ordered state, mediated by the proliferation of topological defects in two dimensions, governs seemingly remote physical systems ranging from liquid helium, ultracold atoms and superconducting thin films to ensembles of spins. Here we observe such a transition in a short-lived gas of exciton-polaritons, bosonic light-matter particles in semiconductor microcavities. The observed quasi-ordered phase, characteristic for an equilibrium two-dimensional bosonic gas, with a decay of coherence in both spatial and temporal domains with the same algebraic exponent, is reproduced with numerical solutions of stochastic dynamics, proving that the mechanism of pairing of the topological defects (vortices) is responsible for the transition to the algebraic order. This is made possible thanks to long polariton lifetimes in high-quality samples and in a reservoir-free region. Our results show that the joint measurement of coherence both in space and time is required to characterize driven-dissipative phase transitions and enable the investigation of topological ordering in open systems.

SCB Quantum Computers Using iSWAP and 1-Qubit Rotations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Williams, Colin; Echtemach, Pierre

2005-01-01

Units of superconducting circuitry that exploit the concept of the single- Cooper-pair box (SCB) have been built and are undergoing testing as prototypes of logic gates that could, in principle, constitute building blocks of clocked quantum computers. These units utilize quantized charge states as the quantum information-bearing degrees of freedom. An SCB is an artificial two-level quantum system that comprises a nanoscale superconducting electrode connected to a reservoir of Cooper-pair charges via a Josephson junction. The logical quantum states of the device, .0. and .1., are implemented physically as a pair of charge-number states that differ by 2e (where e is the charge of an electron). Typically, some 109 Cooper pairs are involved. Transitions between the logical states are accomplished by tunneling of Cooper pairs through the Josephson junction. Although the two-level system contains a macroscopic number of charges, in the superconducting regime, they behave collectively, as a Bose-Einstein condensate, making possible a coherent superposition of the two logical states. This possibility makes the SCB a candidate for the physical implementation of a qubit. A set of quantum logic operations and the gates that implement them is characterized as universal if, in principle, one can form combinations of the operations in the set to implement any desired quantum computation. To be able to design a practical quantum computer, one must first specify how to decompose any valid quantum computation into a sequence of elementary 1- and 2-qubit quantum gates that are universal and that can be realized in hardware that is feasible to fabricate. Traditionally, the set of universal gates has been taken to be the set of all 1-qubit quantum gates in conjunction with the controlled-NOT (CNOT) gate, which is a 2-qubit gate. Also, it has been known for some time that the SWAP gate, which implements square root of the simple 2-qubit exchange interaction, is as computationally universal as is the CNOT operation.

Magnetic field induced transition in superconducting LaTiO3/SrTiO3 interfaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Biscaras, J.; Bergeal, N.; Hurand, S.; Feuillet-Palma, C.; Rastogi, A.; Budhani, R. C.; Grilli, M.; Caprara, S.; Lesueur, J.

2013-07-01

Superconductivity at the LaTiO3/SrTiO3 interface is studied by low temperature and high magnetic field measurements as a function of a back-gate voltage. We show that it is intimately related to the appearance of a low density (a few 1012 cm-2) of high mobility carriers, in addition to low mobility ones always present in the system. These carriers form superconducting puddles coupled by a metallic two-dimensional electron gas, as revealed by the analysis of the phase transition driven by a perpendicular magnetic field. Two critical fields are evidenced, and a quantitative comparison with a recent theoretical model is made.

Nernst effect from fluctuating pairs in the pseudogap phase of the cuprates.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Levchenko, A.; Norman, M. R.; Varlamov, A. A.

2011-01-31

The observation of a large Nernst signal in cuprates above the superconducting transition temperature has attracted much attention. A potential explanation is that it originates from superconducting fluctuations. Although the Nernst signal is indeed consistent with Gaussian fluctuations for overdoped cuprates, Gaussian theory fails to describe the temperature dependence seen for underdoped cuprates. Here, we consider the vertex correction to Gaussian theory resulting from the pseudogap. This yields a Nernst signal in good agreement with the data.

Iron chalcogenide superconductors at high magnetic fields

PubMed Central

Lei, Hechang; Wang, Kefeng; Hu, Rongwei; Ryu, Hyejin; Abeykoon, Milinda; Bozin, Emil S; Petrovic, Cedomir

2012-01-01

Iron chalcogenide superconductors have become one of the most investigated superconducting materials in recent years due to high upper critical fields, competing interactions and complex electronic and magnetic phase diagrams. The structural complexity, defects and atomic site occupancies significantly affect the normal and superconducting states in these compounds. In this work we review the vortex behavior, critical current density and high magnetic field pair-breaking mechanism in iron chalcogenide superconductors. We also point to relevant structural features and normal-state properties. PMID:27877518

Superconducting multi-cell trapped mode deflecting cavity

DOEpatents

Lunin, Andrei; Khabiboulline, Timergali; Gonin, Ivan; Yakovlev, Vyacheslav; Zholents, Alexander

2017-10-10

A method and system for beam deflection. The method and system for beam deflection comprises a compact superconducting RF cavity further comprising a waveguide comprising an open ended resonator volume configured to operate as a trapped dipole mode; a plurality of cells configured to provide a high operating gradient; at least two pairs of protrusions configured for lowering surface electric and magnetic fields; and a main power coupler positioned to optimize necessary coupling for an operating mode and damping lower dipole modes simultaneously.

Phonon-mediated quasiparticle poisoning of superconducting microwave resonators

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Patel, U.; Pechenezhskiy, Ivan V.; Plourde, B. L. T.; Vavilov, M. G.; McDermott, R.

2017-12-01

Nonequilibrium quasiparticles represent a significant source of decoherence in superconducting quantum circuits. Here we investigate the mechanism of quasiparticle poisoning in devices subjected to local quasiparticle injection. We find that quasiparticle poisoning is dominated by the propagation of pair-breaking phonons across the chip. We characterize the energy dependence of the time scale for quasiparticle poisoning. Finally, we observe that incorporation of extensive normal metal quasiparticle traps leads to a more than order-of-magnitude reduction in quasiparticle loss for a given injected quasiparticle power.

Universal broadening of the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer coherence peak of disordered superconducting films.

PubMed

Feigel'man, M V; Skvortsov, M A

2012-10-05

In disordered superconductors, the local pairing field fluctuates in space, leading to the smearing of the BCS peak in the density of states and the appearance of the subgap tail states. We analyze the universal mesoscopic contributions to these effects and show that they are enhanced by the Coulomb repulsion. In the vicinity of the quantum critical point, where superconductivity is suppressed by the "fermionic mechanism," strong smearing of the peak due to mesoscopic fluctuations is predicted.

Coexistence of Topological Edge State and Superconductivity in Bismuth Ultrathin Film.

PubMed

Sun, Hao-Hua; Wang, Mei-Xiao; Zhu, Fengfeng; Wang, Guan-Yong; Ma, Hai-Yang; Xu, Zhu-An; Liao, Qing; Lu, Yunhao; Gao, Chun-Lei; Li, Yao-Yi; Liu, Canhua; Qian, Dong; Guan, Dandan; Jia, Jin-Feng

2017-05-10

Ultrathin freestanding bismuth film is theoretically predicted to be one kind of two-dimensional topological insulators. Experimentally, the topological nature of bismuth strongly depends on the situations of the Bi films. Film thickness and interaction with the substrate often change the topological properties of Bi films. Using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, scanning tunneling microscopy or spectroscopy and first-principle calculation, the properties of Bi(111) ultrathin film grown on the NbSe 2 superconducting substrate have been studied. We find the band structures of the ultrathin film is quasi-freestanding, and one-dimensional edge state exists on Bi(111) film as thin as three bilayers. Superconductivity is also detected on different layers of the film and the pairing potential exhibits an exponential decay with the layer thicknesses. Thus, the topological edge state can coexist with superconductivity, which makes the system a promising platform for exploring Majorana Fermions.

Large enhancement of superconducting transition temperature in single-element superconducting rhenium by shear strain

PubMed Central

Mito, Masaki; Matsui, Hideaki; Tsuruta, Kazuki; Yamaguchi, Tomiko; Nakamura, Kazuma; Deguchi, Hiroyuki; Shirakawa, Naoki; Adachi, Hiroki; Yamasaki, Tohru; Iwaoka, Hideaki; Ikoma, Yoshifumi; Horita, Zenji

2016-01-01

Finding a physical approach for increasing the superconducting transition temperature (Tc) is a challenge in the field of material science. Shear strain effects on the superconductivity of rhenium were investigated using magnetic measurements, X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, and first-principles calculations. A large shear strain reduces the grain size and simultaneously expands the unit cells, resulting in an increase in Tc. Here we show that this shear strain approach is a new method for enhancing Tc and differs from that using hydrostatic strain. The enhancement of Tc is explained by an increase in net electron–electron coupling rather than a change in the density of states near the Fermi level. The shear strain effect in rhenium could be a successful example of manipulating Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer-type Cooper pairing, in which the unit cell volumes are indeed a key parameter. PMID:27811983

Superconducting Properties in Arrays of Nanostructured β-Gallium

DOE PAGES

Moura, K. O.; Pirate, K. R.; Beron, F.; ...

2017-11-10

Samples of nanostructured β-Ga wires were synthesized by a novel method of metallic-flux nanonucleation. Several superconducting properties were observed, revealing the stabilization of a weak-coupling type-II-like superconductor (T c≈ 6.2 K) with a Ginzburg-Landau parameter κ GL = 1.18. This contrasts the type-I superconductivity observed for the majority of Ga phases, including small spheres of β-Ga with diameters near 15 μm. Remarkably, our magnetization curves reveal a crossover field H D, where we propose that the Abrikosov vortices are exactly touching their neighbors inside the Ga nanowires. A phenomenological model is proposed to explain this result by assuming that onlymore » a single row of vortices is allowed inside a nanowire under perpendicular applied field, with an appreciable depletion of Cooper pair density at the nanowire edges. Lastly, these results are expected to shed light on the growing area of superconductivity in nanostructured materials.« less

Atomic-scale Visualization of Electronic Nematicity and Cooper Pairing in Iron-based Superconductors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Allan, Milan P.

2013-03-01

The mechanism of high-temperature superconductivity in the relatively novel iron-based high-Tc superconductors is unresolved, both in terms of how the phases evolve with doping, and in terms of the actual Cooper pairing process. To explore these issues, we used spectroscopic-imaging scanning tunneling microscopy to study the electronic structure of CaFe2As2 in the antiferromagnetic-orthorhombic `parent' state from which the superconductivity emerges. We discovered and visualized the now widely studied electronic `nematicity' of this phase, whose suppression is associated with the emergence of superconductivity (Science 327, 181, 2010). As subsequent transport experiments discovered a related anisotropic conductance which increases with dopant concentration, the interplay between the electronic structure surrounding each dopant atom, quasiparticle scattering therefrom, and the transport nematicity has become a pivotal focus of research. We find that substituting Co for Fe atoms in underdoped Ca(Fe1-xCox)2As2 generates a dense population of identical and strongly anisotropic impurity states that are distributed randomly but aligned with the antiferromagnetic a-axis. We also demonstrate, by imaging their surrounding interference patterns, that these impurity states scatter quasiparticles and thus influence transport in a highly anisotropic manner (M.P. Allan et al., 2013). Next, we studied the momentum dependence of the energy gaps of iron-based superconductivity, now focusing on LiFeAs. If strong electron-electron interactions mediate the Cooper pairing, then momentum-space anisotropic superconducting energy gaps Δi (k) were predicted by multiple techniques to appear on the different electronic bands i. We introduced intraband Bogoliubov quasiparticle scattering interference (QPI) techniques for the determination of anisotropic energy gaps to test these hypotheses and discovered the anisotropy, magnitude, and relative orientations of the energy gaps on multiple bands (Science 336, 563 (2012)). Finally, the electron-electron interactions generating Cooper pairing are often conjectured to involve bosonic spin fluctuations generated by interband scattering of electrons. We explore the STM signatures of both the interband scattering and the electron-boson coupling self-energy in LiFeAs, and detect the signatures of the electron-boson coupling (M.P. Allan et al., in preparation). In collaboration with A.W. Rost, T.-M. Chuang, F. Massee, M.S. Golden, Y. Xie, M.H. Fisher, E.-A. Kim, K. Lee, Ni Ni, S.L. Bud'ko, P.C. Canfield, Q. Wang, D.S. Dessau, K. Kihou, C.H. Lee, A. Iyo, H. Eisaki, D.J. Scalapino, A.P. Mackenzie and J.C. Davis

The robustness of high-Tc superconductivity in underdoped YBa2Cu3O6+x investigated in under strong magnetic fields

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harrison, Neil; Hsu, Y.-T.; Hartstein, M.; Chan, M.; Porras, J.; Loew, T.; Le Tacon, M.; Lonzarich, G.; Keimer, B.; Flux, V.; Sebastian, S.

A central unresolved mystery in high-Tc superconductivity is whether the pairing amplitude is small in the underdoped regime and relates to the superfluid density or whether it is large and relate to the intrinsic energy scales of the Mott insulating parent state. The magnetic field provides a sensitive probe of the pairing amplitude. However, experimental probes of the extent of the vortex state in temperature and magnetic field have thus far been indirect and hence subject to debate. Here we report measurements over a broad range of temperature and magnetic fields which we use to probe the extent of the vortex region in underdoped YBa2Cu3O6+x. and its interplay with quantum oscillations. N.H. acknowledges UU DOE BES Support for ''Science of 100 Tesla''.

First-Principles Correlated Approach to the Normal State of Strontium Ruthenate

PubMed Central

Acharya, S.; Laad, M. S.; Dey, Dibyendu; Maitra, T.; Taraphder, A.

2017-01-01

The interplay between multiple bands, sizable multi-band electronic correlations and strong spin-orbit coupling may conspire in selecting a rather unusual unconventional pairing symmetry in layered Sr2RuO4. This mandates a detailed revisit of the normal state and, in particular, the T-dependent incoherence-coherence crossover. Using a modern first-principles correlated view, we study this issue in the actual structure of Sr2RuO4 and present a unified and quantitative description of a range of unusual physical responses in the normal state. Armed with these, we propose that a new and important element, that of dominant multi-orbital charge fluctuations in a Hund’s metal, may be a primary pair glue for unconventional superconductivity. Thereby we establish a connection between the normal state responses and superconductivity in this system. PMID:28220879

Anisotropy of magnetic interactions and symmetry of the order parameter in unconventional superconductor Sr2RuO4

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Bongjae; Khmelevskyi, Sergii; Mazin, Igor I.; Agterberg, Daniel F.; Franchini, Cesare

2017-07-01

Sr2RuO4 is the best candidate for spin-triplet superconductivity, an unusual and elusive superconducting state of fundamental importance. In the last three decades, Sr2RuO4 has been very carefully studied and despite its apparent simplicity when compared with strongly correlated high-Tc cuprates, for which the pairing symmetry is understood, there is no scenario that can explain all the major experimental observations, a conundrum that has generated tremendous interest. Here, we present a density-functional-based analysis of magnetic interactions in Sr2RuO4 and discuss the role of magnetic anisotropy in its unconventional superconductivity. Our goal is twofold. First, we access the possibility of the superconducting order parameter rotation in an external magnetic field of 200 Oe, and conclude that the spin-orbit interaction in this material is several orders of magnitude too strong to be consistent with this hypothesis. Thus, the observed invariance of the Knight shift across Tc has no plausible explanation, and casts doubt on using the Knight shift as an ultimate litmus paper for the pairing symmetry. Second, we propose a quantitative double-exchange-like model for combining itinerant fermions with an anisotropic Heisenberg magnetic Hamiltonian. This model is complementary to the Hubbard-model-based calculations published so far, and forms an alternative framework for exploring superconducting symmetry in Sr2RuO4. As an example, we use this model to analyze the degeneracy between various p-triplet states in the simplest mean-field approximation, and show that it splits into a single and two doublets with the ground state defined by the competition between the "Ising" and "compass" anisotropic terms.

Isotope and multiband effects in layered superconductors.

PubMed

Bussmann-Holder, Annette; Keller, Hugo

2012-06-13

In this review we consider three classes of superconductors, namely cuprate superconductors, MgB(2) and the new Fe based superconductors. All of these three systems are layered materials and multiband compounds. Their pairing mechanisms are under discussion with the exception of MgB(2), which is widely accepted to be a 'conventional' electron-phonon interaction mediated superconductor, but extending the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) theory to account for multiband effects. Cuprates and Fe based superconductors have higher superconducting transition temperatures and more complex structures. Superconductivity is doping dependent in these material classes unlike in MgB(2) which, as a pure compound, has the highest values of T(c) and a rapid suppression of superconductivity with doping takes place. In all three material classes isotope effects have been observed, including exotic ones in the cuprates, and controversial ones in the Fe based materials. Before the area of high-temperature superconductivity, isotope effects on T(c) were the signature for phonon mediated superconductivity-even when deviations from the BCS value to smaller values were observed. Since the discovery of high T(c) materials this is no longer evident since competing mechanisms might exist and other mediating pairing interactions are discussed which are of purely electronic origin. In this work we will compare the three different material classes and especially discuss the experimentally observed isotope effects of all three systems and present a rather general analysis of them. Furthermore, we will concentrate on multiband signatures which are not generally accepted in cuprates even though they are manifest in various experiments, the evidence for those in MgB(2), and indications for them in the Fe based compounds. Mostly we will consider experimental data, but when possible also discuss theoretical models which are suited to explain the data.

Superconductivity across Lifshitz transition and anomalous insulating state in surface K-dosed (Li0.8Fe0.2OH)FeSe.

PubMed

Ren, Mingqiang; Yan, Yajun; Niu, Xiaohai; Tao, Ran; Hu, Die; Peng, Rui; Xie, Binping; Zhao, Jun; Zhang, Tong; Feng, Dong-Lai

2017-07-01

In iron-based superconductors, understanding the relation between superconductivity and electronic structure upon doping is crucial for exploring the pairing mechanism. Recently, it was found that, in iron selenide (FeSe), enhanced superconductivity ( T c of more than 40 K) can be achieved via electron doping, with the Fermi surface only comprising M-centered electron pockets. By using surface K dosing, scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy, and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we studied the electronic structure and superconductivity of (Li 0.8 Fe 0.2 OH)FeSe in the deep electron-doped regime. We find that a Γ-centered electron band, which originally lies above the Fermi level ( E F ), can be continuously tuned to cross E F and contribute a new electron pocket at Γ. When this Lifshitz transition occurs, the superconductivity in the M-centered electron pocket is slightly suppressed, and a possible superconducting gap with a small size (up to ~5 meV) and a dome-like doping dependence is observed on the new Γ electron pocket. Upon further K dosing, the system eventually evolves into an insulating state. Our findings provide new clues to understand superconductivity versus Fermi surface topology and the correlation effect in FeSe-based superconductors.

Superconductivity across Lifshitz transition and anomalous insulating state in surface K–dosed (Li0.8Fe0.2OH)FeSe

PubMed Central

Ren, Mingqiang; Yan, Yajun; Niu, Xiaohai; Tao, Ran; Hu, Die; Peng, Rui; Xie, Binping; Zhao, Jun; Zhang, Tong; Feng, Dong-Lai

2017-01-01

In iron-based superconductors, understanding the relation between superconductivity and electronic structure upon doping is crucial for exploring the pairing mechanism. Recently, it was found that, in iron selenide (FeSe), enhanced superconductivity (Tc of more than 40 K) can be achieved via electron doping, with the Fermi surface only comprising M-centered electron pockets. By using surface K dosing, scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy, and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we studied the electronic structure and superconductivity of (Li0.8Fe0.2OH)FeSe in the deep electron-doped regime. We find that a Γ-centered electron band, which originally lies above the Fermi level (EF), can be continuously tuned to cross EF and contribute a new electron pocket at Γ. When this Lifshitz transition occurs, the superconductivity in the M-centered electron pocket is slightly suppressed, and a possible superconducting gap with a small size (up to ~5 meV) and a dome-like doping dependence is observed on the new Γ electron pocket. Upon further K dosing, the system eventually evolves into an insulating state. Our findings provide new clues to understand superconductivity versus Fermi surface topology and the correlation effect in FeSe-based superconductors. PMID:28740865

Superconductivity in an almost localized Fermi liquid of quasiparticles with spin-dependent masses and effective-field induced by electron correlations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kaczmarczyk, Jan; Spałek, Jozef

2009-06-01

Paired state of nonstandard quasiparticles is analyzed in detail in two model situations. Namely, we consider the Cooper-pair bound state and the condensed phase of an almost localized Fermi liquid composed of quasiparticles in a narrow band with the spin-dependent masses and an effective field, both introduced earlier and induced by strong electronic correlations. Each of these novel characteristics is calculated in a self-consistent manner. We analyze the bound states as a function of Cooper-pair momentum |Q| in applied magnetic field in the strongly Pauli limiting case (i.e., when the orbital effects of applied magnetic field are disregarded). The spin-direction dependence of the effective mass makes the quasiparticles comprising Cooper-pair spin distinguishable in the quantum-mechanical sense, whereas the condensed gas of pairs may still be regarded as composed of identical entities. The Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) condensed phase of moving pairs is by far more robust in the applied field for the case with spin-dependent masses than in the situation with equal masses of quasiparticles. Relative stability of the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer vs FFLO phase is analyzed in detail on temperature-applied field plane. Although our calculations are carried out for a model situation, we can conclude that the spin-dependent masses should play an important role in stabilizing high-field low-temperature unconventional superconducting phases (FFLO, for instance) in systems such as CeCoIn5 , organic metals, and possibly others.

EDITORIAL: The electromagnetic properties of iron-based superconductors The electromagnetic properties of iron-based superconductors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Prozorov, Ruslan; Gurevich, Alex; Luke, Graeme

2010-05-01

Iron-based superconductors, discovered just a few years ago, are members of a diverse family of pnictides and chalcogenides which may potentially contain hundreds of superconducting compounds. The unconventional, multiband superconductivity in these materials most likely emerges from the quintessential magnetic Fe ions. Along with many similarities to the high-Tc cuprates, the proximity of antiferromagnetism to superconductivity in these semi-metallic materials has attracted much attention. The massive effort aimed at understanding superconductivity in the high-Tc cuprates has stimulated the development of numerous state-of-the-art experimental techniques, improved crystal growth methods and a variety of new theoretical insights. These tools and models were already available and readily applied to the new iron-based superconductors for which lots of high quality new results are being reported literally every day. The current special section represents only a snapshot of these extensive studies performed in the second half of 2009, less than two years after the discovery of 26 K superconductivity in the LaFeAsO compound. The range of various experiments is impressive and this issue is mostly focused on the electromagnetic properties of these iron-based materials. The electromagnetic response is sensitive to the microscopic electronic behavior and therefore can be used to probe the mechanism of superconductivity. On the other hand, it is the electromagnetic response that determines many possible applications of these superconductors, particularly given their extremely high upper critical fields. At this point it is already quite clear that the iron-based superconductors cannot unambiguously fit into any known type of superconductor class and have been placed in one of their own. The metallic ground state of the parent compounds is different from the insulating state of the cuprates and generally exhibits a lower electromagnetic anisotropy. However, similar to the cuprates, a superconducting 'dome' is formed upon doping the parent compounds, which exhibits antiferromagnetic and structural transitions at temperatures well above the superconducting critical temperature. This special section touches on several key aspects of these new iron-based superconductors. These topics include materials synthesis and basic characterization, the role of impurities and pairing symmetry, and mapping of the superconducting phase diagram as a function of chemical doping and pressure. Studies of transport, magnetic and optical properties account for a substantial portion of this special section. Particular attention is devoted to the role of magnetic excitations and the issue of the possible coexistence of magnetism and superconductivity. Attempts to understand the nature of the superconducting pairing are discussed from several angles, including tunneling spectroscopy and the London penetration depth. The vortex state is probed by magnetization, transport and neutron scattering, while the irreversible state is probed by studies of magnetic and transport critical current density.

Nonlinear heat transport in ferromagnetic-quantum dot-superconducting systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hwang, Sun-Yong; Sánchez, David

2018-03-01

We analyze the heat current traversing a quantum dot sandwiched between a ferromagnetic and a superconducting electrode. The heat flow generated in response to a voltage bias presents rectification as a function of the gate potential applied to the quantum dot. Remarkably, in the thermally driven case the heat shows a strong diode effect with large asymmetry ratios that can be externally tuned with magnetic fields or spin-polarized tunneling. Our results thus demonstrate the importance of hybrid systems as promising candidates for thermal applications.

Superconductivity and bandwidth-controlled Mott metal-insulator transition in 1T-TaS2-xSex

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ang, R.; Miyata, Y.; Ieki, E.; Nakayama, K.; Sato, T.; Liu, Y.; Lu, W. J.; Sun, Y. P.; Takahashi, T.

2013-09-01

We have performed high-resolution angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) of layered chalcogenide 1T-TaS2-xSex to elucidate the electronic states especially relevant to the occurrence of superconductivity. We found a direct evidence for a Ta-5d-derived electron pocket associated with the superconductivity, which is fragile against a Mott-gap opening observed in the insulating ground state for S-rich samples. In particular, a strong electron-electron interaction-induced Mott gap driven by a Ta 5d orbital also exists in the metallic ground state for Se-rich samples, while finite ARPES intensity near the Fermi level likely originating from a Se 4p orbital survives, indicative of the orbital-selective nature of the Mott transition. Present results suggest that effective electron correlation and p-d hybridization play a crucial role to tune the superconductivity and Mott metal-insulator transition.

Spectroscopic scanning tunneling microscopy insights into Fe-based superconductors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hoffman, Jennifer E.

2011-12-01

In the first three years since the discovery of Fe-based high Tc superconductors, scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and spectroscopy have shed light on three important questions. First, STM has demonstrated the complexity of the pairing symmetry in Fe-based materials. Phase-sensitive quasiparticle interference (QPI) imaging and low temperature spectroscopy have shown that the pairing order parameter varies from nodal to nodeless s± within a single family, FeTe1-xSex. Second, STM has imaged C4 → C2 symmetry breaking in the electronic states of both parent and superconducting materials. As a local probe, STM is in a strong position to understand the interactions between these broken symmetry states and superconductivity. Finally, STM has been used to image the vortex state, giving insights into the technical problem of vortex pinning, and the fundamental problem of the competing states introduced when superconductivity is locally quenched by a magnetic field. Here we give a pedagogical introduction to STM and QPI imaging, discuss the specific challenges associated with extracting bulk properties from the study of surfaces, and report on progress made in understanding Fe-based superconductors using STM techniques.

Moving Beyond Quantum Mechanics in Search for a Generalized Theory of Superconductivity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Akpojotor, Godfrey; Animalu, Alexander

2012-02-01

Though there are infinite number of theories currently in the literature in the search for a generalized theory of superconductivity (SC), there may be three domineering mechanisms for the Cooper pair formation (CPF) and their emergent theories of SC. Two of these mechanisms, electron-phonon interactions and electron-electron correlations which are based on the quantum theory axiom of action-at-a distance, may be only an approximation of the third mechanism which is contact interaction of the wavepackets of the two electrons forming the Cooper pair as envisaged in hadronic mechanics to be responsible for natural bonding of elements. The application of this hydronic --type interaction to the superconducting cuprates, iron based compounds and heavy fermions leads to interesting results. It is therefore suggested that the future of the search for the theory of SC may be considered from this natural possible bonding that at short distances, the CPF is by a nonlinear, nonlocal and nonhamiltonian strong hadronic-type interactions due to deep wave-overlapping of spinning particles leading to Hulthen potential that is attractive between two electrons in singlet couplings while at large distances the CPF is by superexchange interaction which is purely a quantum mechanical affairs.

Proximity-induced mixed odd- and even-frequency pairing in monolayer NbSe2

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aliabad, Mojtaba Rahimi; Zare, Mohammad-Hossein

2018-06-01

Monolayer superconducting transition-metal dichalcogenide NbSe2 is a candidate for a nodal topological superconductor by magnetic field. Because of the so-called Ising spin-orbit coupling that strongly pins the electron spins to the out-of-plane direction, Cooper pairs in monolayer superconductor NbSe2 are protected against an applied in-plane magnetic field much larger than the Pauli limit. In monolayer NbSe2, in addition to the Fermi pockets at the corners of Brillouin zone with opposite crystal momentum similar to other semiconducting transition-metal dichalcogenids, there is an extra Fermi pocket around the Γ point with much smaller spin splitting, which could lead to an alternative strategy for pairing possibilities that are manipulable by a smaller magnetic field. By considering a monolayer NbSe2-ferromagnet substrate junction, we explore the modified pairing correlations on the pocket at Γ point in hole-doped monolayer NbSe2. The underlying physics is fascinating as there is a delicate interplay of the induced exchange field and the Ising spin-orbit coupling. We realize a mixed singlet-triplet superconductivity, s +f , due to the Ising spin-orbit coupling. Moreover, our results reveal the admixture state including both odd- and even-frequency components, associated with the ferromagnetic proximity effect. Different frequency symmetries of the induced pairing correlations can be realized by manipulating the magnitude and direction of the induced magnetization.

Inducing superconductivity in Weyl semimetal microstructures by selective ion sputtering.

PubMed

Bachmann, Maja D; Nair, Nityan; Flicker, Felix; Ilan, Roni; Meng, Tobias; Ghimire, Nirmal J; Bauer, Eric D; Ronning, Filip; Analytis, James G; Moll, Philip J W

2017-05-01

By introducing a superconducting gap in Weyl or Dirac semimetals, the superconducting state inherits the nontrivial topology of their electronic structure. As a result, Weyl superconductors are expected to host exotic phenomena, such as nonzero-momentum pairing due to their chiral node structure, or zero-energy Majorana modes at the surface. These are of fundamental interest to improve our understanding of correlated topological systems, and, moreover, practical applications in phase-coherent devices and quantum applications have been proposed. Proximity-induced superconductivity promises to allow these experiments on nonsuperconducting Weyl semimetals. We show a new route to reliably fabricate superconducting microstructures from the nonsuperconducting Weyl semimetal NbAs under ion irradiation. The significant difference in the surface binding energy of Nb and As leads to a natural enrichment of Nb at the surface during ion milling, forming a superconducting surface layer ( T c ~ 3.5 K). Being formed from the target crystal itself, the ideal contact between the superconductor and the bulk may enable an effective gapping of the Weyl nodes in the bulk because of the proximity effect. Simple ion irradiation may thus serve as a powerful tool for the fabrication of topological quantum devices from monoarsenides, even on an industrial scale.

Inducing superconductivity in Weyl semimetal microstructures by selective ion sputtering

PubMed Central

Bachmann, Maja D.; Nair, Nityan; Flicker, Felix; Ilan, Roni; Meng, Tobias; Ghimire, Nirmal J.; Bauer, Eric D.; Ronning, Filip; Analytis, James G.; Moll, Philip J. W.

2017-01-01

By introducing a superconducting gap in Weyl or Dirac semimetals, the superconducting state inherits the nontrivial topology of their electronic structure. As a result, Weyl superconductors are expected to host exotic phenomena, such as nonzero-momentum pairing due to their chiral node structure, or zero-energy Majorana modes at the surface. These are of fundamental interest to improve our understanding of correlated topological systems, and, moreover, practical applications in phase-coherent devices and quantum applications have been proposed. Proximity-induced superconductivity promises to allow these experiments on nonsuperconducting Weyl semimetals. We show a new route to reliably fabricate superconducting microstructures from the nonsuperconducting Weyl semimetal NbAs under ion irradiation. The significant difference in the surface binding energy of Nb and As leads to a natural enrichment of Nb at the surface during ion milling, forming a superconducting surface layer (Tc ~ 3.5 K). Being formed from the target crystal itself, the ideal contact between the superconductor and the bulk may enable an effective gapping of the Weyl nodes in the bulk because of the proximity effect. Simple ion irradiation may thus serve as a powerful tool for the fabrication of topological quantum devices from monoarsenides, even on an industrial scale. PMID:28560340

High-temperature superconductivity in one-unit-cell FeSe films.

PubMed

Wang, Ziqiao; Liu, Chaofei; Liu, Yi; Wang, Jian

2017-04-20

Since the dramatic enhancement of the superconducting transition temperature (T c ) was reported in a one-unit-cell FeSe film grown on a SrTiO 3 substrate (1-UC FeSe/STO) by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), related research on this system has become a new frontier in condensed matter physics. In this paper, we present a brief review on this rapidly developing field, mainly focusing on the superconducting properties of 1-UC FeSe/STO. Experimental evidence for high-temperature superconductivity in 1-UC FeSe/STO, including direct evidence revealed by transport and diamagnetic measurements, as well as other evidence from scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), are overviewed. The potential mechanisms of the enhanced superconductivity are also discussed. There are accumulating arguments to suggest that the strengthened Cooper pairing in 1-UC FeSe/STO originates from the interface effects, specifically the charge transfer and coupling to phonon modes in the TiO 2 plane. The study of superconductivity in 1-UC FeSe/STO not only sheds new light on the mechanism of high-temperature superconductors with layered structures, but also provides an insight into the exploration of new superconductors by interface engineering.

Full superconducting dome of strong Ising protection in gated monolayer WS2.

PubMed

Lu, Jianming; Zheliuk, Oleksandr; Chen, Qihong; Leermakers, Inge; Hussey, Nigel E; Zeitler, Uli; Ye, Jianting

2018-04-03

Many recent studies show that superconductivity not only exists in atomically thin monolayers but can exhibit enhanced properties such as a higher transition temperature and a stronger critical field. Nevertheless, besides being unstable in air, the weak tunability in these intrinsically metallic monolayers has limited the exploration of monolayer superconductivity, hindering their potential in electronic applications (e.g., superconductor-semiconductor hybrid devices). Here we show that using field effect gating, we can induce superconductivity in monolayer WS 2 grown by chemical vapor deposition, a typical ambient-stable semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD), and we are able to access a complete set of competing electronic phases over an unprecedented doping range from band insulator, superconductor, to a reentrant insulator at high doping. Throughout the superconducting dome, the Cooper pair spin is pinned by a strong internal spin-orbit interaction, making this material arguably the most resilient superconductor in the external magnetic field. The reentrant insulating state at positive high gating voltages is attributed to localization induced by the characteristically weak screening of the monolayer, providing insight into many dome-like superconducting phases observed in field-induced quasi-2D superconductors.

Unconventional Cooper pairing results in a pseudogap-like phase in s-wave superconductors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Springer, Daniel; Cheong, Siew Ann

2015-10-01

The impact of disorder on the superconducting (SC) pairing mechanism is the centre of much debate. Some evidence suggests a loss of phase coherence of pairs while others point towards the formation of a competing phase. In our work we show that the two perspectives may be different sides of the same coin. Using an extension of the perturbative renormalization group approach we compare the impact of different disorder-induced interactions on a SC ground state. We find that in the strongly disordered regime an interaction between paired fermions and their respective disordered environment replaces conventional Cooper pairing. For these unconventional Cooper pairs the phase coherence condition, required for the formation of a SC condensate, is not satisfied.

Cooper Pairs in Insulators?!

ScienceCinema

James Valles

2017-12-09

Nearly 50 years elapsed between the discovery of superconductivity and the emergence of the microscopic theory describing this zero resistance state. The explanation required a novel phase of matter in which conduction electrons joined in weakly bound pairs and condensed with other pairs into a single quantum state. Surprisingly, this Cooper pair formation has also been invoked to account for recently uncovered high-resistance or insulating phases of matter. To address this possibility, we have used nanotechnology to create an insulating system that we can probe directly for Cooper pairs. I will present the evidence that Cooper pairs exist and dominate the electrical transport in these insulators and I will discuss how these findings provide new insight into superconductor to insulator quantum phase transitions. 

Neutron-scattering evidence for a periodically modulated superconducting phase in the underdoped cuprate La 1.905Ba 0.095CuO 4

DOE PAGES

Xu, Zhijun; Stock, C.; Chi, Songxue; ...

2014-10-01

The role of antiferromagnetic spin correlations in high-temperature superconductors remains a matter of debate. We present inelastic neutron-scattering evidence that gapless spin fluctuations coexist with superconductivity in La 1.905Ba 0.095CuO 4. Furthermore, we observe that both the low-energy magnetic spectral weight and the spin incommensurability are enhanced with the onset of superconducting correlations. We propose that the coexistence occurs through intertwining of spatial modulations of the pair wave function and the antiferromagnetic correlations. This proposal is also directly relevant to sufficiently underdoped La 2-xSr xCuO 4 and YBa 2Cu 3O 6+x.

Routes to High-Temperature Superconductivity: A Lesson from FeSe/SrTiO3

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Dung-Hai

2018-03-01

Raising the superconducting transition temperature to a point where applications are practical is one of the most important challenges in science. In this review, we aim at gaining insights on the Tc controlling factors for a particular high-temperature superconductor family - the FeSe-based superconductors. In particular, we discuss the mechanisms by which the Cooper pairing temperature is enhanced from ˜8 K in bulk FeSe to ˜80 K in the interface between an atomic layer of FeSe and SrTiO3. This includes the experimental hints and the theoretical simulation of the involved mechanisms. We end by applying these insights to suggest some possible high-temperature superconducting systems.

Detecting ultralight bosonic dark matter via absorption in superconductors

DOE PAGES

Hochberg, Yonit; Lin, Tongyan; Zurek, Kathryn M.

2016-07-18

Superconducting targets have recently been proposed for the direct detection of dark matter as light as a keV, via elastic scattering off conduction electrons in Cooper pairs. Detecting such light dark matter requires sensitivity to energies as small as the superconducting gap of O(meV). Here we show that these same superconducting devices can detect much lighter DM, of meV to eV mass, via dark matter absorption on a conduction electron, followed by emission of an athermal phonon. Lastly, we demonstrate the power of this setup for relic kinetically mixed hidden photons, pseudoscalars, and scalars, showing that the reach can exceedmore » current astrophysical and terrestrial constraints with only a moderate exposure.« less

Superconductivity in the two-dimensional Hubbard model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beenen, J.; Edwards, D. M.

1995-11-01

Quasiparticle bands of the two-dimensional Hubbard model are calculated using the Roth two-pole approximation to the one-particle Green's function. Excellent agreement is obtained with recent Monte Carlo calculations, including an anomalous volume of the Fermi surface near half-filling, which can possibly be explained in terms of a breakdown of Fermi liquid theory. The calculated bands are very flat around the (π,0) points of the Brillouin zone in agreement with photoemission measurements of cuprate superconductors. With doping there is a shift in spectral weight from the upper band to the lower band. The Roth method is extended to deal with superconductivity within a four-pole approximation allowing electron-hole mixing. It is shown that triplet p-wave pairing never occurs. A self-consistent solution with singlet dx2-y2-wave pairing is found and optimal doping occurs when the van Hove singularity, corresponding to the flat band part, lies at the Fermi level. Nearest-neighbor antiferromagnetic correlations play an important role in flattening the bands near the Fermi level and in favoring superconductivity. However, the mechanism for superconductivity is a local one, in contrast to spin-fluctuation exchange models. For reasonable values of the hopping parameter the transition temperature Tc is in the range 10-100 K. The optimum doping δc lies between 0.14 and 0.25, depending on the ratio U/t. The gap equation has a BCS-like form and 2Δmax/kTc~=4.

Superconducting proximity effect in topological materials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reeg, Christopher R.

In recent years, there has been a renewed interest in the proximity effect due to its role in the realization of topological superconductivity. In this dissertation, we discuss several results that have been obtained in the field of proximity-induced superconductivity and relate the results to the search for Majorana fermions. First, we show that repulsive electron-electron interactions can induce a non-Majorana zero-energy bound state at the interface between a conventional superconductor and a normal metal. We show that this state is very sensitive to disorder, owing to its lack of topological protection. Second, we show that Rashba spin-orbit coupling, which is one of the key ingredients in engineering a topological superconductor, induces triplet pairing in the proximity effect. When the spin-orbit coupling is strong (i.e., when the characteristic energy scale for spin-orbit coupling is comparable to the Fermi energy), the induced singlet and triplet pairing amplitudes can be comparable in magnitude. Finally, we discuss how the size of the proximity-induced gap, which appears in a low-dimensional material coupled to a superconductor, evolves as the thickness of the (quasi-)low-dimensional material is increased. We show that the induced gap can be comparable to the bulk energy gap of the underlying superconductor in materials that are much thicker than the Fermi wavelength, even in the presence of an interfacial barrier and strong Fermi surface mismatch. This result has important experimental consequences for topological superconductivity, as a sizable gap is required to isolate and detect the Majorana modes.

Influence of substitution, nonstoichiometry and annealing-conditions on superconductivity and normal conductivity of Fe1+δ (Te1‑x Xx ) (X=Se, S)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lima, M. S. L.; ElMassalami, M.; Deguchi, K.; Takeya, H.; Takano, Y.

2018-03-01

Thermal evolution of resistivity, ρ(T, x), of as-prepared samples of Fe1+δ Te1‑x S x (δ ≈ 0, x ≤ 0.2 = solubility limit) demonstrate a granular log-in-T character within Ts < T <300K, a Kondo-like resistive contribution within Tc < T < Ts and granular superconductivity at low temperature (Ts = structural transition point of Fe1+δ Te, Tc =superconducting transition point). We attribute the log-in-T character as well as the nonbulk superconducting features of as-prepared samples to their granular superconductor nature. Annealing in oxygen removes Kondo-like contribution, annihilates pair-breaking centres and establishes bulk superconductivity but, in contrast, the high-temperature granular log-in-T character is hardly influenced. This analysis was successfully extended to the isomorphous Fe1+δ Te1‑x Se x as well as to other types of post-synthesis sample-treatment (e.g. annealing in different gas ambient or soaking in particular liquids).

Direct evidence for a pressure-induced nodal superconducting gap in the Ba0.65Rb0.35Fe2As2 superconductor

PubMed Central

Guguchia, Z.; Amato, A.; Kang, J.; Luetkens, H.; Biswas, P. K.; Prando, G.; von Rohr, F.; Bukowski, Z.; Shengelaya, A.; Keller, H.; Morenzoni, E.; Fernandes, Rafael M.; Khasanov, R.

2015-01-01

The superconducting gap structure in iron-based high-temperature superconductors (Fe-HTSs) is non-universal. In contrast to other unconventional superconductors, in the Fe-HTSs both d-wave and extended s-wave pairing symmetries are close in energy. Probing the proximity between these very different superconducting states and identifying experimental parameters that can tune them is of central interest. Here we report high-pressure muon spin rotation experiments on the temperature-dependent magnetic penetration depth in the optimally doped nodeless s-wave Fe-HTS Ba0.65Rb0.35Fe2As2. Upon pressure, a strong decrease of the penetration depth in the zero-temperature limit is observed, while the superconducting transition temperature remains nearly constant. More importantly, the low-temperature behaviour of the inverse-squared magnetic penetration depth, which is a direct measure of the superfluid density, changes qualitatively from an exponential saturation at zero pressure to a linear-in-temperature behaviour at higher pressures, indicating that hydrostatic pressure promotes the appearance of nodes in the superconducting gap. PMID:26548650

Single Spin Superconductivity: Bulk and Junction Effects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rudd, Robert E.; Pickett, Warren E.

1998-03-01

The Josephson Effect provides a primary signature of single spin superconductivity (SSS), the as yet unobserved superconducting state which was proposed recently(W.E. Pickett, Phys. Rev. Lett. 77), 3185 (1996). as a low temperature phase of half-metallic antiferromagnets.(W.E. Pickett, ``Spin Density Functional Based Search for Half-Metallic Antiferromagnets,'' cond-mat/9709100 (1997).) These materials are insulating in the spin-down channel but are metallic in the spin-up channel. The SSS state is characterized by a unique form of p-wave pairing within a single spin channel.(R.E. Rudd and W.E. Pickett, ``Single Spin Superconductivity:Formulation and Ginzburg-Landau Theory,'' Phys. Rev. B. in press) We develop the theory of a rich variety of Josephson effects that arise due to the form of the SSS order parameter. Tunneling is allowed at a SSS-SSS^' junction depending on the relative orientation of each of their order parameters (SSS and HM AFM). No current flows between an SSS and an s-wave BCS system, which provides a powerful method to distinguish SSS from other superconducting states.

Detection of s-wave superconductivity on monolayer CuO2 films on Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Yang; Zhong, Yong; Han, Sha; Lv, Yanfeng; Wang, Wenlin; Zhang, Ding; Ding, Hao; Zhang, Yimin; Wang, Lili; He, Ke; Song, Canli; Ma, Xucun; Xue, Qikun

High temperature superconductivity emerges when the CuO2 layer touches the doped charge reservoir blocks. The redistributed charge carriers at these interfaces condense into coherent Cooper pairs, albeit the exact underlying mechanism is still highly controversial. Targeting at this, we have mimicked the CuO2/charge reservoir interface by depositing the monolayer CuO2 films on optimal doped Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ substrates. Direct investigation on these superconducting CuO2 films, however, yields results in stark contrast with the common recognition. Despite of the well-known V shaped pseudogap, a U shaped gap is identified. This U shaped gap disappears at TC and is indifference to K, Cs and Ag adsorbates, in line with the traditional s-wave superconductivity. In view of these results, we propose that superconductivity in cuprates may indeed stem from the modulation doping induced two dimensional hole liquid, which is confined in the CuO2 layers. NSF and MOST of China.

Direct evidence for a pressure-induced nodal superconducting gap in the Ba 0.65Rb 0.35Fe 2As 2 superconductor

DOE PAGES

Guguchia, Z.; Amato, A.; Kang, J.; ...

2015-11-09

The superconducting gap structure in iron-based high-temperature superconductors (Fe-HTSs) is non-universal. Contrasting with other unconventional superconductors, in the Fe-HTSs both d-wave and extended s-wave pairing symmetries are close in energy. Probing the proximity between these very different superconducting states and identifying experimental parameters that can tune them is of central interest. Here we report high-pressure muon spin rotation experiments on the temperature-dependent magnetic penetration depth in the optimally doped nodeless s-wave Fe-HTS Ba 0.65Rb 0.35Fe 2As 2. Upon pressure, a strong decrease of the penetration depth in the zero-temperature limit is observed, while the superconducting transition temperature remains nearly constant.more » More importantly, the low-temperature behaviour of the inverse-squared magnetic penetration depth, which is a direct measure of the superfluid density, changes qualitatively from an exponential saturation at zero pressure to a linear-in-temperature behaviour at higher pressures, indicating that hydrostatic pressure promotes the appearance of nodes in the superconducting gap.« less

The p-wave superconductivity in the presence of Rashba interaction in 2DEG

PubMed Central

Weng, Ke-Chuan; Hu, C. D.

2016-01-01

We investigate the effect of the Rashba interaction on two dimensional superconductivity. The presence of the Rashba interaction lifts the spin degeneracy and gives rise to the spectrum of two bands. There are intraband and interband pairs scattering which result in the coupled gap equations. We find that there are isotropic and anisotropic components in the gap function. The latter has the form of cos φk where . The former is suppressed because the intraband and the interband scatterings nearly cancel each other. Hence, −the system should exhibit the p-wave superconductivity. We perform a detailed study of electron-phonon interaction for 2DEG and find that, if only normal processes are considered, the effective coupling strength constant of this new superconductivity is about one-half of the s-wave case in the ordinary 2DEG because of the angular average of the additional in the anisotropic gap function. By taking into account of Umklapp processes, we find they are the major contribution in the electron-phonon coupling in superconductivity and enhance the transition temperature Tc. PMID:27459677

Nanoclusters as a new family of high temperature superconductors (Conference Presentation)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Halder, Avik; Kresin, Vitaly V.

2017-03-01

Electrons in metal clusters organize into quantum shells, akin to atomic shells in the periodic table. Such nanoparticles are referred to as "superatoms". The electronic shell levels are highly degenerate giving rise to sharp peaks in the density of states, which can enable exceptionally strong electron pairing in certain clusters containing tens to hundreds of atoms. A spectroscopic investigation of size - resolved aluminum nanoclusters has revealed a sharp rise in the density of states near the Fermi level as the temperature decreases towards 100 K. The effect is especially prominent in the closed-shell "magic" cluster Al66 [1, 2]. The characteristics of this behavior are fully consistent with a pairing transition, implying a high temperature superconducting state with Tc < 100K. This value exceeds that of bulk aluminum by two orders of magnitude. As a new class of high-temperature superconductors, such metal nanocluster particles are promising building blocks for high-Tc materials, devices, and networks. ---------- 1. Halder, A., Liang, A., Kresin, V. V. A novel feature in aluminum cluster photoionization spectra and possibility of electron pairing at T 100K. Nano Lett 15, 1410 - 1413 (2015) 2. Halder, A., Kresin, V. V. A transition in the density of states of metal "superatom" nanoclusters and evidence for superconducting pairing at T 100K. Phys. Rev. B 92, 214506 (2015).

Stimulated emission of Cooper pairs in a high-temperature cuprate superconductor

DOE PAGES

Zhang, Wentao; Miller, Tristan; Smallwood, Christopher L.; ...

2016-07-01

The concept of stimulated emission of bosons has played an important role in modern science and technology, and constitutes the working principle for lasers. In a stimulated emission process, an incoming photon enhances the probability that an excited atomic state will transition to a lower energy state and generate a second photon of the same energy. It is expected, but not experimentally shown, that stimulated emission contributes significantly to the zero resistance current in a superconductor by enhancing the probability that scattered Cooper pairs will return to the macroscopically occupied condensate instead of entering any other state. Here, we usemore » time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy to study the initial rise of the non-equilibrium quasiparticle population in a Bi 2 Sr 2 CaCu 2 O 8+δ cuprate superconductor induced by an ultrashort laser pulse. Our finding reveals significantly slower buildup of quasiparticles in the superconducting state than in the normal state. The slower buildup only occurs when the pump pulse is too weak to deplete the superconducting condensate, and for cuts inside the Fermi arc region. We propose this is a manifestation of stimulated recombination of broken Cooper pairs, and signals an important momentum space dichotomy in the formation of Cooper pairs inside and outside the Fermi arc region.« less

Superconductivity versus bound-state formation in a two-band superconductor with small Fermi energy: Applications to Fe pnictides/chalcogenides and doped SrTiO3

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chubukov, Andrey V.; Eremin, Ilya; Efremov, Dmitri V.

2016-05-01

We analyze the interplay between superconductivity and the formation of bound pairs of fermions (BCS-BEC crossover) in a 2D model of interacting fermions with small Fermi energy EF and weak attractive interaction, which extends to energies well above EF. The 2D case is special because a two-particle bound state forms at arbitrary weak interaction, and already at weak coupling, one has to distinguish between the bound-state formation and superconductivity. We briefly review the situation in the one-band model and then consider two different two-band models: one with one hole band and one electron band and another with two hole or two electron bands. In each case, we obtain the bound-state energy 2 E0 for two fermions in a vacuum and solve the set of coupled equations for the pairing gaps and the chemical potentials to obtain the onset temperature of the pairing Tins and the quasiparticle dispersion at T =0 . We then compute the superfluid stiffness ρs(T =0 ) and obtain the actual Tc. For definiteness, we set EF in one band to be near zero and consider different ratios of E0 and EF in the other band. We show that at EF≫E0 , the behavior of both two-band models is BCS-like in the sense that Tc≈Tins≪EF and Δ ˜Tc . At EF≪E0 , the two models behave differently: in the model with two hole/two electron bands, Tins˜E0/lnE/0EF , Δ ˜(E0EF) 1 /2 , and Tc˜EF , like in the one-band model. In between Tins and Tc, the system displays a preformed pair behavior. In the model with one hole and one electron bands, Tc remains of order Tins, and both remain finite at EF=0 and of the order of E0. The preformed pair behavior still does exist in this model because Tc is numerically smaller than Tins. For both models, we reexpress Tins in terms of the fully renormalized two-particle scattering amplitude by extending to the two-band case (the method pioneered by Gorkov and Melik-Barkhudarov back in 1961). We apply our results for the model with a hole and an electron band to Fe pnictides and Fe chalcogenides in which a superconducting gap has been detected on the bands that do not cross the Fermi level, and to FeSe, in which the superconducting gap is comparable to the Fermi energy. We apply the results for the model with two electron bands to Nb-doped SrTiO3 and argue that our theory explains the rapid increase of Tc when both bands start crossing the Fermi level.

Topological aspect and the pairing symmetries on spin-triplet chiral p-wave superconductor under strain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Imai, Yoshiki; Sigrist, Manfred

2018-05-01

Motivated by recent experiments on Sr2RuO4, the effect of uniaxial strain on the chiral p-wave superconductor is discussed. We study particularly the relation between the topological indices and different pairing states in the superconducting phase through the thermal Hall conductivity, which is proportional to temperature and the Chern number in the very low-temperature limit. We show that the temperature-dependence of the thermal Hall conductivity under uniaxial strain depends strongly on the form of the pairing state. The obtained result may provide a possible experimental probe for the pairing structure in Sr2RuO4.

Superconducting Memristors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

di Ventra, Massimiliano; Peotta, Sebastiano

2014-03-01

In his original work Josephson [Phys. Lett. 1, 251 (1962)] predicted that a phase-dependent conductance should be present in superconductor tunnel junctions. This effect attracted considerable attention in the past but is difficult to detect, mainly because it is hard to single it out from the background pair current. Here, we propose to isolate it by using a two-junction interferometer where the junctions have the same critical currents but different conductances. The pair current is completely suppressed when the magnetic flux in the loop is half of a flux quantum and the device is characterized by a pure phase-dependent conductance. According to the theory of nonlinear circuit elements this is in fact an ideal voltage-controlled memristor. Possible applications of this memristive device are memories and neuromorphic computing within the framework of ultrafast and low-energy superconducting digital circuits. This work has been supported by DOE under Grant No. DE-FG02-05ER46204.

Evidence for charge-vortex duality at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface.

PubMed

Mehta, M M; Dikin, D A; Bark, C W; Ryu, S; Folkman, C M; Eom, C B; Chandrasekhar, V

2012-07-17

The concept of duality has proved extremely powerful in extending our understanding in many areas of physics. Charge-vortex duality has been proposed as a model to understand the superconductor to insulator transition in disordered thin films and Josephson junction arrays. In this model, on the superconducting side, one has delocalized Cooper pairs but localized vortices; while on the insulating side, one has localized Cooper pairs but mobile vortices. Here we show a new experimental manifestation of this duality in the electron gas that forms at the interface between LaAlO(3) and SrTiO(3). The effect is due to the motion of vortices generated by the magnetization dynamics of the ferromagnet that also forms at the same interface, which results in an increase in resistance on the superconducting side of the transition, but an increase in conductance on the insulating side.

Spin-triplet superconductivity in a weak-coupling Hubbard model for the quasi-one-dimensional compound Li0.9Mo6O17

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cho, Weejee; Platt, Christian; McKenzie, Ross H.; Raghu, Srinivas

2015-10-01

The purple bronze Li0.9Mo6O17 is of interest due to its quasi-one-dimensional electronic structure and the possible Luttinger liquid behavior resulting from it. For sufficiently low temperatures, it is a superconductor with a pairing symmetry that is still to be determined. To shed light on this issue, we analyze a minimal Hubbard model for this material involving four molybdenum orbitals per unit cell near quarter filling, using asymptotically exact perturbative renormalization group methods. We find that spin-triplet odd-parity superconductivity is the dominant instability. Approximate nesting properties of the two quasi-one-dimensional Fermi surfaces enhance certain second-order processes, which play crucial roles in determining the structure of the pairing gap. Notably, we find that the gap has more sign changes than required by the point-group symmetry.

Spin triplet superconductivity in a weak-coupling Hubbard model for the quasi-one-dimensional compound Li0.9 Mo6 O17

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Platt, Christian; Cho, Weejee; McKenzie, Ross H.; Raghu, Sri

The purple bronze Li0.9Mo6O17 is of interest due to its quasi-one-dimensional electronic structure and the possible Luttinger liquid behavior resulting from it. For sufficiently low temperatures, it is a superconductor with a pairing symmetry that is still to be determined. To shed light on this issue, we analyze a minimal Hubbard model for this material involving four Molybdenum orbitals per unit cell near quarter filling, using asymptotically exact perturbative renormalization group methods. We find that spin triplet odd-parity superconductivity is the dominant instability. Approximate nesting properties of the two quasi-one-dimensional Fermi surfaces enhance certain second-order processes, which play crucial roles in determining the structure of the pairing gap. Notably, we find that the gap has accidental nodes, i.e. it has more sign changes than required by the point-group symmetry.

Basic electronic properties of iron selenide under variation of structural parameters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guterding, Daniel; Jeschke, Harald O.; Valentí, Roser

2017-09-01

Since the discovery of high-temperature superconductivity in the thin-film FeSe /SrTiO3 system, iron selenide and its derivates have been intensively scrutinized. Using ab initio density functional theory calculations we review the electronic structures that could be realized in iron selenide if the structural parameters could be tuned at liberty. We calculate the momentum dependence of the susceptibility and investigate the symmetry of electron pairing within the random phase approximation. Both the susceptibility and the symmetry of electron pairing depend on the structural parameters in a nontrivial way. These results are consistent with the known experimental behavior of binary iron chalcogenides and, at the same time, reveal two promising ways of tuning superconducting transition temperatures in these materials: on one hand by expanding the iron lattice of FeSe at constant iron-selenium distance and, on the other hand, by increasing the iron-selenium distance with unchanged iron lattice.

{sup 17}O Knight shift study of the superconducting state of Sr{sub 2}RuO{sub 4}

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mukuda, H.; Ishida, K.; Kitaoka, Y.

1999-12-01

{sup 17}O Knight shift measurements in Sr{sub 2}RuO{sub 4} were performed over the wide range of magnetic field 3.2--11.4kOe parallel to the basal RuO{sub 2} planes. The spin susceptibility is totally unchanged through its T{prime}{sub c}, evidencing that the spin-triplet superconducting state is realized in Sr{sub 2}RuO{sub 4}. The results indicates that the Cooper pairs consist of the parallel spin pairs {vert{underscore}bar}{up{underscore}arrow}{up{underscore}arrow}> and {vert{underscore}bar}{down{underscore}arrow}{down{underscore}arrow}> with their quantization axis perpendicular to the c-axis direction. The in-plane 2D nearly ferromagnetic spin fluctuations may play a role for the stabilization of this state among various representations of spin-triplet order parameter.

Negative differential conductance in doped-silicon nanoscale devices with superconducting electrodes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shapovalov, A.; Shaternik, V.; Suvorov, O.; Zhitlukhina, E.; Belogolovskii, M.

2018-02-01

We present a proof-of-concept nanoelectronics device with a negative differential conductance, an attractive from the applied viewpoint functionality. The device, characterized by the decreasing current with increasing voltage in a certain voltage region above a threshold bias of about several hundred millivolts, consists of two superconducting electrodes with an amorphous 10-nm-thick silicon interlayer doped by tungsten nano-inclusions. We show that small changes in the W content radically modify the shape of the trilayer current-voltage dependence and identify sudden conductance switching at a threshold voltage as an effect of Andreev fluctuators. The latter entities are two-level systems at the superconductor-doped silicon interface where a Cooper pair tunnels from a superconductor and occupies a pair of localized electronic states. We argue that in contrast to previously proposed devices, our samples permit very large-scale integration and are practically feasible.

Compact two-beam push-pull free electron laser

DOEpatents

Hutton, Andrew [Yorktown, VA

2009-03-03

An ultra-compact free electron laser comprising a pair of opposed superconducting cavities that produce identical electron beams moving in opposite directions such that each set of superconducting cavities accelerates one electron beam and decelerates the other electron beam. Such an arrangement, allows the energy used to accelerate one beam to be recovered and used again to accelerate the second beam, thus, each electron beam is decelerated by a different structure than that which accelerated it so that energy exchange rather than recovery is achieved resulting in a more compact and highly efficient apparatus.

Cooper pair tunnelling and quasiparticle poisoning in a galvanically isolated superconducting double dot

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Esmail, A. A.; Ferguson, A. J.; Lambert, N. J.

2017-12-01

We increase the isolation of a superconducting double dot from its environment by galvanically isolating it from any electrodes. We probe it using high frequency reflectometry techniques, find 2e-periodic behaviour, and characterise the energy structure of its charge states. By modelling the response of the device, we determine the time averaged probability that the device is poisoned by quasiparticles, and by comparing this with previous work, we conclude that quasiparticle exchange between the dots and the leads is an important relaxation mechanism.

Electron-phonon Interactions in HTSC Cuprates

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Egami, T.; Chung, J.-H.; McQueeny, R. J.

Phonons have been generally considered to be irrelevant to the high-temperature superconductivity in the cuprates. However, such a bias is usually based upon the assumption of conventional electron-phonon coupling, while in the cuprates the coupling can be rather unconventional because of strong electron correlation. We present the results of our recent measurements of phonon dispersion in YBa{sub 2}Cu{sub 3}O{sub 6+x} by inelastic neutron scattering. These suggest certain phonon modes interact strongly with electrons and are closely involved in the superconductivity phenomenon with possible contribution to pairing.

A hidden pseudogap under the 'dome' of superconductivity in electron-doped high-temperature superconductors.

PubMed

Alff, L; Krockenberger, Y; Welter, B; Schonecke, M; Gross, R; Manske, D; Naito, M

2003-04-17

The ground state of superconductors is characterized by the long-range order of condensed Cooper pairs: this is the only order present in conventional superconductors. The high-transition-temperature (high-T(c)) superconductors, in contrast, exhibit more complex phase behaviour, which might indicate the presence of other competing ground states. For example, the pseudogap--a suppression of the accessible electronic states at the Fermi level in the normal state of high-T(c) superconductors-has been interpreted as either a precursor to superconductivity or as tracer of a nearby ground state that can be separated from the superconducting state by a quantum critical point. Here we report the existence of a second order parameter hidden within the superconducting phase of the underdoped (electron-doped) high-T(c) superconductor Pr2-xCe(x)CuO4-y and the newly synthesized electron-doped material La2-xCe(x)CuO4-y (ref. 8). The existence of a pseudogap when superconductivity is suppressed excludes precursor superconductivity as its origin. Our observation is consistent with the presence of a (quantum) phase transition at T = 0, which may be a key to understanding high-T(c) superconductivity. This supports the picture that the physics of high-T(c) superconductors is determined by the interplay between competing and coexisting ground states.

Precision vector control of a superconducting RF cavity driven by an injection locked magnetron

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chase, Brian; Pasquinelli, Ralph; Cullerton, Ed

The technique presented in this paper enables the regulation of both radio frequency amplitude and phase in narrow band devices such as a Superconducting RF (SRF) cavity driven by constant power output devices i.e. magnetrons [1]. The ability to use low cost high efficiency magnetrons for accelerator RF power systems, with tight vector regulation, presents a substantial cost savings in both construction and operating costs - compared to current RF power system technology. An operating CW system at 2.45 GHz has been experimentally developed. Vector control of an injection locked magnetron has been extensively tested and characterized with a SRFmore » cavity as the load. Amplitude dynamic range of 30 dB, amplitude stability of 0.3% r.m.s, and phase stability of 0.26 degrees r.m.s. has been demonstrated.« less

Probing the strongly driven spin-boson model in a superconducting quantum circuit.

PubMed

Magazzù, L; Forn-Díaz, P; Belyansky, R; Orgiazzi, J-L; Yurtalan, M A; Otto, M R; Lupascu, A; Wilson, C M; Grifoni, M

2018-04-11

Quantum two-level systems interacting with the surroundings are ubiquitous in nature. The interaction suppresses quantum coherence and forces the system towards a steady state. Such dissipative processes are captured by the paradigmatic spin-boson model, describing a two-state particle, the "spin", interacting with an environment formed by harmonic oscillators. A fundamental question to date is to what extent intense coherent driving impacts a strongly dissipative system. Here we investigate experimentally and theoretically a superconducting qubit strongly coupled to an electromagnetic environment and subjected to a coherent drive. This setup realizes the driven Ohmic spin-boson model. We show that the drive reinforces environmental suppression of quantum coherence, and that a coherent-to-incoherent transition can be achieved by tuning the drive amplitude. An out-of-equilibrium detailed balance relation is demonstrated. These results advance fundamental understanding of open quantum systems and bear potential for the design of entangled light-matter states.

Precision vector control of a superconducting RF cavity driven by an injection locked magnetron

DOE PAGES

Chase, Brian; Pasquinelli, Ralph; Cullerton, Ed; ...

2015-03-01

The technique presented in this paper enables the regulation of both radio frequency amplitude and phase in narrow band devices such as a Superconducting RF (SRF) cavity driven by constant power output devices i.e. magnetrons [1]. The ability to use low cost high efficiency magnetrons for accelerator RF power systems, with tight vector regulation, presents a substantial cost savings in both construction and operating costs - compared to current RF power system technology. An operating CW system at 2.45 GHz has been experimentally developed. Vector control of an injection locked magnetron has been extensively tested and characterized with a SRFmore » cavity as the load. Amplitude dynamic range of 30 dB, amplitude stability of 0.3% r.m.s, and phase stability of 0.26 degrees r.m.s. has been demonstrated.« less

Declining availability of outdoor skating in Canada

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brammer, Jeremy R.; Samson, Jason; Humphries, Murray M.

2015-01-01

We find a mixed chirality $d$-wave superconducting state in the coexistence region between antiferromagnetism and interaction-driven superconductivity in lightly doped honeycomb materials. This state has a topological chiral $d+id$-wave symmetry in one Dirac valley but $d-id$-wave symmetry in the other valley and hosts two counter-propagating edge states, protected in the absence of intervalley scattering. A first-order topological phase transition, with no bulk gap closing, separates the chiral $d$-wave state at small magnetic moments from the mixed chirality $d$-wave phase.

Unusual phonon density of states and response to superconducting transition in In-doped topological crystalline insulator Pb 0.5Sn 0.5Te

DOE PAGES

Ran, Keijing; Tranquada, John M.; Zhong, Ruidan; ...

2018-06-30

Here, we present inelastic neutron scattering results of phonons in (Pb 0.5Sn 0.5) 1–xIn xTe powders, with x = 0, and 0.3.The x = 0 sample is a topological crystalline insulator, and the x = 0 . 3 sample is a superconductor with a bulk superconducting transition temperature T c of 4.7 K. In both samples, we observe unexpected van Hove singularities in the phonon density of states at energies of 1– 2.5 meV, suggestive of local modes. On cooling the superconducting sample through T c, there is an enhancement of these features for energies below twice the superconducting-gap energy.more » We further note that the superconductivity in (Pb 0.5Sn 0.5) 1–xIn xTe occurs in samples with normal-state resistivities of order 10 mΩ cm, indicative of bad-metal behavior. Calculations based on density functional theory suggest that the superconductivity is easily explainable in terms of electron-phonon coupling; however, they completely miss the low-frequency modes and do not explain the large resistivity. While the bulk superconducting state of (Pb 0.5Sn 0.5) 0.7In 0.3Te appears to be driven by phonons, a proper understanding will require ideas beyond simple BCS theor« less

Unusual phonon density of states and response to superconducting transition in In-doped topological crystalline insulator Pb 0.5Sn 0.5Te

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ran, Keijing; Tranquada, John M.; Zhong, Ruidan

Here, we present inelastic neutron scattering results of phonons in (Pb 0.5Sn 0.5) 1–xIn xTe powders, with x = 0, and 0.3.The x = 0 sample is a topological crystalline insulator, and the x = 0 . 3 sample is a superconductor with a bulk superconducting transition temperature T c of 4.7 K. In both samples, we observe unexpected van Hove singularities in the phonon density of states at energies of 1– 2.5 meV, suggestive of local modes. On cooling the superconducting sample through T c, there is an enhancement of these features for energies below twice the superconducting-gap energy.more » We further note that the superconductivity in (Pb 0.5Sn 0.5) 1–xIn xTe occurs in samples with normal-state resistivities of order 10 mΩ cm, indicative of bad-metal behavior. Calculations based on density functional theory suggest that the superconductivity is easily explainable in terms of electron-phonon coupling; however, they completely miss the low-frequency modes and do not explain the large resistivity. While the bulk superconducting state of (Pb 0.5Sn 0.5) 0.7In 0.3Te appears to be driven by phonons, a proper understanding will require ideas beyond simple BCS theor« less

Mesoscopic pairing without superconductivity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hofmann, Johannes

2017-12-01

We discuss pairing signatures in mesoscopic nanowires with a variable attractive pairing interaction. Depending on the wire length, density, and interaction strength, these systems realize a simultaneous bulk-to-mesoscopic and BCS-BEC crossover, which we describe in terms of the parity parameter that quantifies the odd-even energy difference and generalizes the bulk Cooper pair binding energy to mesoscopic systems. We show that the parity parameter can be extracted from recent measurements of conductance oscillations in SrTiO3 nanowires by Cheng et al. [Nature (London) 521, 196 (2015), 10.1038/nature14398], where it marks the critical magnetic field that separates pair and single-particle currents. Our results place the experiment in the fluctuation-dominated mesoscopic regime on the BCS side of the crossover.

Disent to Pairing Mechanism

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cheng, Kaijia; Cheng, Shuyu

Up to now, the pairing mechanism is regarded as the rule of thumb criterion of an acceptable theory of superconductivity. It is generally held as a taboo for any theory which is not founded on this basis. However this is not true and it misleads the direction for the theoretical research for both the high and low temperature regions and eventually delays the progress in practice. It is now the time to clear up the situation.

A Cryogenic Waveguide Mount for Microstrip Circuit and Material Characterization

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

U-yen, Kongpop; Brown, Ari D.; Moseley, Samuel H.; Noroozian, Omid; Wollack, Edward J.

2016-01-01

A waveguide split-block fixture used in the characterization of thin-film superconducting planar circuitry at millimeter wavelengths is described in detail. The test fixture is realized from a pair of mode converters, which transition from rectangular-waveguide to on-chip microstrip-line signal propagation via a stepped ridge-guide impedance transformer. The observed performance of the W-band package at 4.2K has a maximum in-band transmission ripple of 2dB between 1.53 and 1.89 times the waveguide cutoff frequency. This metrology approach enables the characterization of superconducting microstrip test structures as a function temperature and frequency. The limitations of the method are discussed and representative data for superconducting Nb and NbTiN thin film microstrip resonators on single-crystal Si dielectric substrates are presented.

Charge dissipative dielectric for cryogenic devices

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cantor, Robin Harold (Inventor); Hall, John Addison (Inventor)

2007-01-01

A Superconducting Quantum Interference Device (SQUID) is disclosed comprising a pair of resistively shunted Josephson junctions connected in parallel within a superconducting loop and biased by an external direct current (dc) source. The SQUID comprises a semiconductor substrate and at least one superconducting layer. The metal layer(s) are separated by or covered with a semiconductor material layer having the properties of a conductor at room temperature and the properties of an insulator at operating temperatures (generally less than 100 Kelvins). The properties of the semiconductor material layer greatly reduces the risk of electrostatic discharge that can damage the device during normal handling of the device at room temperature, while still providing the insulating properties desired to allow normal functioning of the device at its operating temperature. A method of manufacturing the SQUID device is also disclosed.

Inducing superconductivity in Weyl semimetal microstructures by selective ion sputtering

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bachmann, Maja D.; Nair, Nityan; Flicker, Felix

By introducing a superconducting gap in Weyl or Dirac semimetals, the superconducting state inherits the nontrivial topology of their electronic structure. As a result, Weyl superconductors are expected to host exotic phenomena, such as nonzero-momentum pairing due to their chiral node structure, or zero-energy Majorana modes at the surface. These are of fundamental interest to improve our understanding of correlated topological systems, and, moreover, practical applications in phase-coherent devices and quantum applications have been proposed. Proximity-induced superconductivity promises to allow these experiments on nonsuperconducting Weyl semimetals. Here, we show a new route to reliably fabricate superconducting microstructures from the nonsuperconductingmore » Weyl semimetal NbAs under ion irradiation. Furthermore, the significant difference in the surface binding energy of Nb and As leads to a natural enrichment of Nb at the surface during ion milling, forming a superconducting surface layer (Tc ~ 3.5 K). Being formed from the target crystal itself, the ideal contact between the superconductor and the bulk may enable an effective gapping of the Weyl nodes in the bulk because of the proximity effect. Simple ion irradiation may thus serve as a powerful tool for the fabrication of topological quantum devices from monoarsenides, even on an industrial scale.« less

Ultrasensitive interplay between ferromagnetism and superconductivity in NbGd composite thin films

PubMed Central

Bawa, Ambika; Gupta, Anurag; Singh, Sandeep; Awana, V.P.S.; Sahoo, Sangeeta

2016-01-01

A model binary hybrid system composed of a randomly distributed rare-earth ferromagnetic (Gd) part embedded in an s-wave superconducting (Nb) matrix is being manufactured to study the interplay between competing superconducting and ferromagnetic order parameters. The normal metallic to superconducting phase transition appears to be very sensitive to the magnetic counterpart and the modulation of the superconducing properties follow closely to the Abrikosov-Gor’kov (AG) theory of magnetic impurity induced pair breaking mechanism. A critical concentration of Gd is obtained for the studied NbGd based composite films (CFs) above which superconductivity disappears. Besides, a magnetic ordering resembling the paramagnetic Meissner effect (PME) appears in DC magnetization measurements at temperatures close to the superconducting transition temperature. The positive magnetization related to the PME emerges upon doping Nb with Gd. The temperature dependent resistance measurements evolve in a similar fashion with the concentration of Gd as that with an external magnetic field and in both the cases, the transition curves accompany several intermediate features indicating the traces of magnetism originated either from Gd or from the external field. Finally, the signatures of magnetism appear evidently in the magnetization and transport measurements for the CFs with very low (<1 at.%) doping of Gd. PMID:26725684

Polaronic behavior in a weak-coupling superconductor.

PubMed

Swartz, Adrian G; Inoue, Hisashi; Merz, Tyler A; Hikita, Yasuyuki; Raghu, Srinivas; Devereaux, Thomas P; Johnston, Steven; Hwang, Harold Y

2018-02-13

The nature of superconductivity in the dilute semiconductor SrTiO 3 has remained an open question for more than 50 y. The extremely low carrier densities ([Formula: see text]-[Formula: see text] cm -3 ) at which superconductivity occurs suggest an unconventional origin of superconductivity outside of the adiabatic limit on which the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) and Migdal-Eliashberg (ME) theories are based. We take advantage of a newly developed method for engineering band alignments at oxide interfaces and access the electronic structure of Nb-doped SrTiO 3 , using high-resolution tunneling spectroscopy. We observe strong coupling to the highest-energy longitudinal optic (LO) phonon branch and estimate the doping evolution of the dimensionless electron-phonon interaction strength ([Formula: see text]). Upon cooling below the superconducting transition temperature ([Formula: see text]), we observe a single superconducting gap corresponding to the weak-coupling limit of BCS theory, indicating an order of magnitude smaller coupling ([Formula: see text]). These results suggest that despite the strong normal state interaction with electrons, the highest LO phonon does not provide a dominant contribution to pairing. They further demonstrate that SrTiO 3 is an ideal system to probe superconductivity over a wide range of carrier density, adiabatic parameter, and electron-phonon coupling strength.

Inducing superconductivity in Weyl semimetal microstructures by selective ion sputtering

DOE PAGES

Bachmann, Maja D.; Nair, Nityan; Flicker, Felix; ...

2017-05-24

By introducing a superconducting gap in Weyl or Dirac semimetals, the superconducting state inherits the nontrivial topology of their electronic structure. As a result, Weyl superconductors are expected to host exotic phenomena, such as nonzero-momentum pairing due to their chiral node structure, or zero-energy Majorana modes at the surface. These are of fundamental interest to improve our understanding of correlated topological systems, and, moreover, practical applications in phase-coherent devices and quantum applications have been proposed. Proximity-induced superconductivity promises to allow these experiments on nonsuperconducting Weyl semimetals. Here, we show a new route to reliably fabricate superconducting microstructures from the nonsuperconductingmore » Weyl semimetal NbAs under ion irradiation. Furthermore, the significant difference in the surface binding energy of Nb and As leads to a natural enrichment of Nb at the surface during ion milling, forming a superconducting surface layer (Tc ~ 3.5 K). Being formed from the target crystal itself, the ideal contact between the superconductor and the bulk may enable an effective gapping of the Weyl nodes in the bulk because of the proximity effect. Simple ion irradiation may thus serve as a powerful tool for the fabrication of topological quantum devices from monoarsenides, even on an industrial scale.« less

Polaronic behavior in a weak-coupling superconductor

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Swartz, Adrian G.; Inoue, Hisashi; Merz, Tyler A.

We report the nature of superconductivity in the dilute semiconductor SrTiO 3 has remained an open question for more than 50 y. The extremely low carrier densities (10 18–10 20 cm -3) at which superconductivity occurs suggest an unconventional origin of superconductivity outside of the adiabatic limit on which the Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer (BCS) and Migdal–Eliashberg (ME) theories are based. We take advantage of a newly developed method for engineering band alignments at oxide interfaces and access the electronic structure of Nb-doped SrTiO 3, using high-resolution tunneling spectroscopy. We observe strong coupling to the highest-energy longitudinal optic (LO) phonon branch and estimatemore » the doping evolution of the dimensionless electron–phonon interaction strength (λ). Upon cooling below the superconducting transition temperature (T c), we observe a single superconducting gap corresponding to the weak-coupling limit of BCS theory, indicating an order of magnitude smaller coupling (λ BCS≈0.1). These results suggest that despite the strong normal state interaction with electrons, the highest LO phonon does not provide a dominant contribution to pairing. Finally, they further demonstrate that SrTiO 3 is an ideal system to probe superconductivity over a wide range of carrier density, adiabatic parameter, and electron–phonon coupling strength.« less

Polaronic behavior in a weak-coupling superconductor

DOE PAGES

Swartz, Adrian G.; Inoue, Hisashi; Merz, Tyler A.; ...

2018-01-30

We report the nature of superconductivity in the dilute semiconductor SrTiO 3 has remained an open question for more than 50 y. The extremely low carrier densities (10 18–10 20 cm -3) at which superconductivity occurs suggest an unconventional origin of superconductivity outside of the adiabatic limit on which the Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer (BCS) and Migdal–Eliashberg (ME) theories are based. We take advantage of a newly developed method for engineering band alignments at oxide interfaces and access the electronic structure of Nb-doped SrTiO 3, using high-resolution tunneling spectroscopy. We observe strong coupling to the highest-energy longitudinal optic (LO) phonon branch and estimatemore » the doping evolution of the dimensionless electron–phonon interaction strength (λ). Upon cooling below the superconducting transition temperature (T c), we observe a single superconducting gap corresponding to the weak-coupling limit of BCS theory, indicating an order of magnitude smaller coupling (λ BCS≈0.1). These results suggest that despite the strong normal state interaction with electrons, the highest LO phonon does not provide a dominant contribution to pairing. Finally, they further demonstrate that SrTiO 3 is an ideal system to probe superconductivity over a wide range of carrier density, adiabatic parameter, and electron–phonon coupling strength.« less

Superconductivity in three-dimensional spin-orbit coupled semimetals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Savary, Lucile; Ruhman, Jonathan; Venderbos, Jörn W. F.; Fu, Liang; Lee, Patrick A.

2017-12-01

Motivated by the experimental detection of superconductivity in the low-carrier density half-Heusler compound YPtBi, we study the pairing instabilities of three-dimensional strongly spin-orbit coupled semimetals with a quadratic band touching point. In these semimetals the electronic structure at the Fermi energy is described by spin j =3/2 quasiparticles, which are fundamentally different from those in ordinary metals with spin j =1/2 . For both local and nonlocal pairing channels in j =3/2 materials we develop a general approach to analyzing pairing instabilities, thereby providing the computational tools needed to investigate the physics of these systems beyond phenomenological considerations. Furthermore, applying our method to a generic density-density interaction, we establish that: (i) The pairing strengths in the different symmetry channels uniquely encode the j =3/2 nature of the Fermi surface band structure—a manifestation of the fundamental difference with ordinary metals. (ii) The leading odd-parity pairing instabilities are different for electron doping and hole doping. Finally, we argue that polar phonons, i.e., Coulomb interactions mediated by the long-ranged electric polarization of the optical phonon modes, provide a coupling strength large enough to account for a Kelvin-range transition temperature in the s -wave channel, and are likely to play an important role in the overall attraction in non-s -wave channels. Moreover, the explicit calculation of the coupling strengths allows us to conclude that the two largest non-s -wave contributions occur in nonlocal channels, in contrast with what has been commonly assumed.

Raman and fluorescence characteristics of resonant inelastic X-ray scattering from doped superconducting cuprates

DOE PAGES

Huang, H. Y.; Jia, C. J.; Chen, Z. Y.; ...

2016-01-22

Measurements of spin excitations are essential for an understanding of spin-mediated pairing for superconductivity; and resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) provides a considerable opportunity to probe high-energy spin excitations. However, whether RIXS correctly measures the collective spin excitations of doped superconducting cuprates remains under debate. Here we demonstrate distinct Raman- and fluorescence-like RIXS excitations of Bi1.5Pb0.6Sr1.54CaCu2O8+δ. Combining photon-energy and momentum dependent RIXS measurements with theoretical calculations using exact diagonalization provides conclusive evidence that the Raman-like RIXS excitations correspond to collective spin excitations, which are magnons in the undoped Mott insulators and evolve into paramagnons in doped superconducting compounds. In contrast,more » the fluorescence-like shifts are due primarily to the continuum of particle-hole excitations in the charge channel. Our results show that under the proper experimental conditions RIXS indeed can be used to probe paramagnons in doped high-Tc cuprate superconductors.« less

Giant phonon anomaly associated with superconducting fluctuations in the pseudogap phase of cuprates

DOE PAGES

Liu, Ye-Hua; Konik, Robert M.; Rice, T. M.; ...

2016-01-20

The pseudogap in underdoped cuprates leads to significant changes in the electronic structure, and was later found to be accompanied by anomalous fluctuations of superconductivity and certain lattice phonons. Here we propose that the Fermi surface breakup due to the pseudogap, leads to a breakup of the pairing order into two weakly coupled sub-band amplitudes, and a concomitant low energy Leggett mode due to phase fluctuations between them. This increases the temperature range of superconducting fluctuations containing an overdamped Leggett mode. In this range inter-sub-band phonons show strong damping due to resonant scattering into an intermediate state with a pairmore » of overdamped Leggett modes. In the ordered state, the Leggett mode develops a finite energy, changing the anomalous phonon damping into an anomaly in the dispersion. Finally, this proposal explains the intrinsic connection between the anomalous pseudogap phase, enhanced superconducting fluctuations and giant anomalies in the phonon spectra.« less

Neutron detection using the superconducting Nb-based current-biased kinetic inductance detector

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shishido, Hiroaki; Yamaguchi, Hiroyuki; Miki, Yuya; Miyajima, Shigeyuki; Oikawa, Kenichi; Harada, Masahide; Hidaka, Mutsuo; Oku, Takayuki; Arai, Masatoshi; Fujimaki, Akira; Ishida, Takekazu

2017-09-01

We demonstrate neutron detection using a solid-state 3He-free superconducting current-biased kinetic inductance detector (CB-KID), which consists of a superconducting Nb meander line and 10B neutron absorption layer. The CB-KID is based on the transient process of kinetic inductance of Cooper pairs induced by the nuclear reaction between 10B and neutrons. Therefore, the CB-KID can be operated in a wide superconducting region in the bias current-temperature diagram, as demonstrated in this paper. The transient change of the kinetic inductance induces the electromagnetic wave pulse under a DC bias current. The signal propagates along the meander line toward both sides with opposite polarity, where the signal polarity is dominated by the bias current direction. The full width at half maximum of the signals remains on the order of a few tens of ns, which confirms the high-speed operation of our detectors. We determine the neutron incident position within 1.3 mm accuracy in one dimension using the multichannel CB-KIDs.

Rf system for the NSLS coherent infrared radiation source

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Broome, W.; Biscardi, R.; Keane, J.

1995-05-01

The existing NSLS X-ray Lithography Source (XLS Phase I) is being considered for a coherent synchrotron radiation source. The existing 211 MHz warm cavity will be replaced with a 5-cell 2856 MHz superconducting RF cavity, driven by a series of 2 kW klystrons. The RF system will provide a total V{sub RF} of 1.5 MV to produce {sigma}{sub L} = 0.3 mm electron bunches at an energy of 150 MeV. Superconducting technology significantly reduces the required space and power needed to achieve the higher voltage. It is the purpose of this paper to describe the superconducting RF system and cavity,more » power requirements, and cavity design parameters such as input coupling, Quality Factor, and Higher Order Modes.« less

A fully superconducting bearing system for flywheel applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Ke-xi; Wu, Dong-jie; Jiao, Y. L.; Zheng, M. H.

2016-06-01

A fully superconducting magnetic suspension structure has been designed and constructed for the purpose of superconducting bearing applications in flywheel energy storage systems. A thrust type bearing and two journal type bearings, those that are composed of melt textured high-Tc superconductor YBCO bulks and Nd-Fe-B permanent magnets, are used in the bearing system. The rotor dynamical behaviors, including critical speeds and rotational loss, are studied. Driven by a variable-frequency three-phase induction motor, the rotor shaft attached with a 25 kg flywheel disc can be speeded up to 15 000 rpm without serious resonance occurring. Although the flywheel system runs stably in the supercritical speeds region, very obvious rotational loss is unavoidable. The loss mechanism has been discussed in terms of eddy current loss and hysteresis loss.

Majorana spin liquids, topology, and superconductivity in ladders

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Le Hur, Karyn; Soret, Ariane; Yang, Fan

2017-11-01

We theoretically address spin chain analogs of the Kitaev quantum spin model on the honeycomb lattice. The emergent quantum spin-liquid phases or Anderson resonating valence-bond (RVB) states can be understood, as an effective model, in terms of p -wave superconductivity and Majorana fermions. We derive a generalized phase diagram for the two-leg ladder system with tunable interaction strengths between chains allowing us to vary the shape of the lattice (from square to honeycomb ribbon or brickwall ladder). We evaluate the winding number associated with possible emergent (topological) gapless modes at the edges. In the Az phase, as a result of the emergent Z2 gauge fields and π -flux ground state, one may build spin-1/2 (loop) qubit operators by analogy to the toric code. In addition, we show how the intermediate gapless B phase evolves in the generalized ladder model. For the brick-wall ladder, the B phase is reduced to one line, which is analyzed through perturbation theory in a rung tensor product states representation and bosonization. Finally, we show that doping with a few holes can result in the formation of hole pairs and leads to a mapping with the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model in polyacetylene; a superconducting-insulating quantum phase transition for these hole pairs is accessible, as well as related topological properties.

Selection rules for Cooper pairing in two-dimensional interfaces and sheets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scheurer, Mathias S.; Agterberg, Daniel F.; Schmalian, Jörg

2017-12-01

Thin sheets deposited on a substrate and interfaces of correlated materials offer a plethora of routes towards the realization of exotic phases of matter. In these systems, inversion symmetry is broken which strongly affects the properties of possible instabilities—in particular in the superconducting channel. By combining symmetry and energetic arguments, we derive general and experimentally accessible selection rules for Cooper instabilities in noncentrosymmetric systems, which yield necessary and sufficient conditions for spontaneous time-reversal-symmetry breaking at the superconducting transition and constrain the orientation of the triplet vector. We discuss in detail the implications for various different materials. For instance, we conclude that the pairing state in thin layers of Sr2RuO4 must, as opposed to its bulk superconducting state, preserve time-reversal symmetry with its triplet vector being parallel to the plane of the system. All triplet states of this system allowed by the selection rules are predicted to display topological Majorana modes at dislocations or at the edge of the system. Applying our results to the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 heterostructures, we find that while the condensates of the (001) and (110) oriented interfaces must be time-reversal symmetric, spontaneous time-reversal-symmetry breaking can only occur for the less studied (111) interface. We also discuss the consequences for thin layers of URu2Si2 and UPt3 as well as for single-layer FeSe. On a more general level, our considerations might serve as a design principle in the search for time-reversal-symmetry-breaking superconductivity in the absence of external magnetic fields.

The strength of electron electron correlation in Cs3C60

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baldassarre, L.; Perucchi, A.; Mitrano, M.; Nicoletti, D.; Marini, C.; Pontiroli, D.; Mazzani, M.; Aramini, M.; Riccó, M.; Giovannetti, G.; Capone, M.; Lupi, S.

2015-10-01

Cs3C60 is an antiferromagnetic insulator that under pressure (P) becomes metallic and superconducting below Tc = 38 K. The superconducting dome present in the T - P phase diagram close to a magnetic state reminds what found in superconducting cuprates and pnictides, strongly suggesting that superconductivity is not of the conventional Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) type We investigate the insulator to metal transition induced by pressure in Cs3C60 by means of infrared spectroscopy supplemented by Dynamical Mean-Field Theory calculations. The insulating compound is driven towards a metallic-like behaviour, while strong correlations survive in the investigated pressure range. The metallization process is accompanied by an enhancement of the Jahn-Teller effect. This shows that electronic correlations are crucial in determining the insulating behaviour at ambient pressure and the bad metallic nature for increasing pressure. On the other hand, the relevance of the Jahn-Teller coupling in the metallic state confirms that phonon coupling survives in the presence of strong correlations.

Multiple Quantum Phase Transitions in a two-dimensional superconductor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bergeal, Nicolas; Biscaras, J.; Hurand, S.; Feuillet-Palma, C.; Lesueur, J.; Budhani, R. C.; Rastogi, A.; Caprara, S.; Grilli, M.

2013-03-01

We studied the magnetic field driven Quantum Phase Transition (QPT) in electrostatically gated superconducting LaTiO3/SrTiO3 interfaces. Through finite size scaling analysis, we showed that it belongs to the (2 +1)D XY model universality class. The system can be described as a disordered array of superconducting islands coupled by a two dimensional electron gas (2DEG). Depending on the 2DEG conductance tuned by the gate voltage, the QPT is single (corresponding to the long range phase coherence in the whole array) or double (one related to local phase coherence, the other one to the array). By retrieving the coherence length critical exponent ν, we showed that the QPT can be ``clean'' or ``dirty'' according to the Harris criteria, depending on whether the phase coherence length is smaller or larger than the island size. The overall behaviour is well described by a model of coupled superconducting puddles in the framework of the fermionic scenario of 2D superconducting QPT.

Proximity-induced superconductivity in Landau-quantized graphene monolayers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cohnitz, Laura; De Martino, Alessandro; Häusler, Wolfgang; Egger, Reinhold

2017-10-01

We consider massless Dirac fermions in a graphene monolayer in the ballistic limit, subject to both a perpendicular magnetic field B and a proximity-induced pairing gap Δ . When the chemical potential is at the Dirac point, our exact solution of the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equation yields Δ -independent relativistic Landau levels. Since eigenstates depend on Δ , many observables nevertheless are sensitive to pairing, e.g., the local density of states or the edge state spectrum. By solving the problem with an additional in-plane electric field, we also discuss how snake states are influenced by a pairing gap.

Anomalous Hall effect in semiconductor quantum wells in proximity to chiral p -wave superconductors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, F.; Yu, T.; Wu, M. W.

2018-05-01

By using the gauge-invariant optical Bloch equation, we perform a microscopic kinetic investigation on the anomalous Hall effect in chiral p -wave superconducting states. Specifically, the intrinsic anomalous Hall conductivity in the absence of the magnetic field is zero as a consequence of Galilean invariance in our description. As for the extrinsic channel, a finite anomalous Hall current is obtained from the impurity scattering with the optically excited normal quasiparticle current even at zero temperature. From our kinetic description, it can be clearly seen that the excited normal quasiparticle current is due to an induced center-of-mass momentum of Cooper pairs through the acceleration driven by ac electric field. For the induced anomalous Hall current, we show that the conventional skew-scattering channel in the linear response makes the dominant contribution in the strong impurity interaction. In this case, our kinetic description as a supplementary viewpoint mostly confirms the results of Kubo formalism in the literature. Nevertheless, in the weak impurity interaction, this skew-scattering channel becomes marginal and we reveal that an induction channel from the Born contribution dominates the anomalous Hall current. This channel, which has long been overlooked in the literature, is due to the particle-hole asymmetry by nonlinear optical excitation. Finally, we study the case in the chiral p -wave superconducting state with a transverse conical magnetization, which breaks the Galilean invariance. In this situation, the intrinsic anomalous Hall conductivity is no longer zero. Comparison of this intrinsic channel with the extrinsic one from impurity scattering is addressed.

Odd-frequency triplet pairing in mixed-parity superconductors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cuoco, Mario; Gentile, Paola; Noce, Canio; Romano, Alfonso; Annunziata, Gaetano; Linder, Jacob

2012-02-01

We show that mixed-parity superconductors may exhibit equal-spin pair correlations that are odd-in-time and can be tuned by means of an applied field. The direction and the amplitude of the pair correlator in the spin space turn out to be strongly dependent on the symmetry of the order parameter, and thus provide a tool to identify different types of singlet-triplet mixed configurations. We suggest that odd-in-time spin-polarized pair correlations can be generated without magnetic inhomogeneities in superconducting/ferromagnetic hybrids with non-centrosymmetric superconductor or when parity mixing is induced at the interface. Paola Gentile, Canio Noce, Alfonso Romano, Gaetano Annunziata, Jacob Linder, Mario Cuoco, arXiv:1109.4885

Engineering frequency-dependent superfluidity in Bose-Fermi mixtures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arzamasovs, Maksims; Liu, Bo

2018-04-01

Unconventional superconductivity and superfluidity are among the most exciting and fascinating quantum phenomena in condensed-matter physics. Usually such states are characterized by nontrivial spin or spatial symmetry of the pairing order parameter, such as "spin triplet" or "p wave." However, besides spin and spatial dependence the order parameter may have unconventional frequency dependence which is also permitted by Fermi-Dirac statistics. Odd-frequency fermionic pairing is an exciting paradigm when discussing exotic superfluidity or superconductivity and is yet to be realized in experiments. In this paper we propose a symmetry-based method of controlling frequency dependence of the pairing order parameter via manipulating the inversion symmetry of the system. First, a toy model is introduced to illustrate that frequency dependence of the order parameter can be achieved through our proposed approach. Second, by taking advantage of recent rapid developments in producing spin-orbit-coupled dispersions in ultracold gases, we propose a Bose-Fermi mixture to realize such frequency-dependent superfluid. The key idea is introducing the frequency-dependent attraction between fermions mediated by Bogoliubov phonons with asymmetric dispersion. Our proposal should pave an alternative way for exploring frequency-dependent superfluids with cold atoms.

Nematic superconductivity in CuxBi2Se3 : Surface Andreev bound states

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hao, Lei; Ting, C. S.

2017-10-01

We study theoretically the topological surface states (TSSs) and the possible surface Andreev bound states (SABSs) of CuxBi2Se3 , which is known to be a topological insulator at x =0 . The superconductivity (SC) pairing of this compound is assumed to have broken spin-rotation symmetry, similar to that of the A-phase of 3He as suggested by recent nuclear-magnetic resonance experiments. For both spheroidal and corrugated cylindrical Fermi surfaces with the hexagonal warping terms, we show that the bulk SC gap is rather anisotropic; the minimum of the gap is negligibly small as compared to the maximum of the gap. This would make the fully gapped pairing effectively nodal. For a clean system, our results indicate the bulk of this compound to be a topological superconductor with the SABSs appearing inside the bulk SC gap. The zero-energy SABSs, which are Majorana fermions, together with the TSSs not gapped by the pairing, produce a zero-energy peak in the surface density of states (SDOS). The SABSs are expected to be stable against short-range nonmagnetic impurities, and the local SDOS is calculated around a nonmagnetic impurity. The relevance of our results to experiments is discussed.

Switching effects and spin-valley Andreev resonant peak shifting in silicene superconductor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Soodchomshom, Bumned; Niyomsoot, Kittipong; Pattrawutthiwong, Eakkarat

2018-03-01

The magnetoresistance and spin-valley transport properties in a silicene-based NM/FB/SC junction are investigated, where NM, FB and SC are normal, ferromagnetic and s-wave superconducting silicene, respectively. In the FB region, perpendicular electric and staggered exchange fields are applied. The quasiparticles may be described by Dirac Bogoliubov-de Gennes equation due to Cooper pairs formed by spin-valley massive fermions. The spin-valley conductances are calculated based on the modified Blonder-Tinkham-Klapwijk formalism. We find the spin-valley dependent Andreev resonant peaks in the junction shifted by applying exchange field. Perfect conductance switch generated by interplay of intrinsic spin orbit interaction and superconducting gap has been predicted. Spin and valley polarizations are almost linearly dependent on biased voltage near zero bias and then turn into perfect switch at biased voltage approaching the superconducting gap. The perfect switching of large magnetoresistance has been also predicted at biased energy near the superconducting gap. These switching effects may be due to the presence of spin-valley Andreev resonant peak near the superconducting gap. Our work reveals potential of silicene as applications of electronic switching devices and linear control of spin and valley polarizations.

Controlling superconducting spin flow with a single homogeneous ferromagnet: interference, torque and spin-flip immunity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jacobsen, Sol; Kulagina, Iryna; Linder, Jacob

Superconducting spintronics has the potential to overcome the Joule heating and short decay lengths of electron transport by harnessing the dissipationless spin currents of superconductors in thin-film devices. Using conventional singlet superconductive sources, such dissipationless currents have only been demonstrated experimentally using intricate magnetically inhomogeneous multilayers, which can be difficult to construct, control and measure. Here we present analytic and numerical results proving the possibility of both generating and controlling a long-ranged spin supercurrent using only one single homogeneous magnetic element (arXiv:1510.02488). The spin supercurrent generated in this way does not decay spatially, in stark contrast to normal spin currents that remain polarized only up to the spin relaxation length. Through a novel interference term between long-ranged and short-ranged Cooper pairs, we expose the existence of a superconductivity-mediated torque even without magnetic inhomogeneities, showing that the different components of the spin supercurrent polarization respond fundamentally differently to a change in the superconducting phase difference. This establishes a mechanism for tuning dissipationless spin and charge flow separately via superconductors. Supported by COST Action MP-1201 and RCN Grant Numbers 205591, 216700 and 24806.

Spin excitations in hole-overdoped iron-based superconductors.

PubMed

Horigane, K; Kihou, K; Fujita, K; Kajimoto, R; Ikeuchi, K; Ji, S; Akimitsu, J; Lee, C H

2016-09-12

Understanding the overall features of magnetic excitation is essential for clarifying the mechanism of Cooper pair formation in iron-based superconductors. In particular, clarifying the relationship between magnetism and superconductivity is a central challenge because magnetism may play a key role in their exotic superconductivity. BaFe2As2 is one of ideal systems for such investigation because its superconductivity can be induced in several ways, allowing a comparative examination. Here we report a study on the spin fluctuations of the hole-overdoped iron-based superconductors Ba1-xKxFe2As2 (x = 0.5 and 1.0; Tc = 36 K and 3.4 K, respectively) over the entire Brillouin zone using inelastic neutron scattering. We find that their spin spectra consist of spin wave and chimney-like dispersions. The chimney-like dispersion can be attributed to the itinerant character of magnetism. The band width of the spin wave-like dispersion is almost constant from the non-doped to optimum-doped region, which is followed by a large reduction in the overdoped region. This suggests that the superconductivity is suppressed by the reduction of magnetic exchange couplings, indicating a strong relationship between magnetism and superconductivity in iron-based superconductors.

Anisotropic superconductivity in β-(BDA-TTP)2SbF6: STM spectroscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nomura, K.; Muraoka, R.; Matsunaga, N.; Ichimura, K.; Yamada, J.

2009-03-01

We have investigated the gap symmetry in the superconducting phase of β-(BDA-TTP)2SbF6 with use of the scanning tunneling microscope (STM). The tunneling spectra obtained on the conducting surface show a clear superconducting gap structure. Its functional form is of V-shaped similarly to κ-(BEDT-TTF)2X and suggests the anisotropic superconducting gap with line nodes. For lateral surfaces the shape of tunneling spectra varies from the U-shape with relatively large gap to the V-shape with small gap depending on the tunneling direction alternately twice between directional angle 0 and π. From the analysis of conductance curve taking the k dependence of the tunneling probability into account, it is found that the gap has maximum near the a* and c* axes and the nodes appear along near a*+c* and the a-c* directions. These indicate that the d like superconducting pair is formed in this system as the case of κ-(BEDT-TTF)2X. This node direction is consistent with the theoretical prediction based on the spin fluctuation mechanism. However, the zero-bias conductance peak has not been observed yet.

Strong enhancement of s -wave superconductivity near a quantum critical point of Ca 3 Ir 4 Sn 13

DOE PAGES

Biswas, P. K.; Guguchia, Z.; Khasanov, R.; ...

2015-11-11

We repormore » t microscopic studies by muon spin rotation/relaxation as a function of pressure of the Ca 3 Ir 4 Sn 13 and Sr 3Ir 4Sn 13 system displaying superconductivity and a structural phase transition associated with the formation of a charge density wave (CDW). Our findings show a strong enhancement of the superfluid density and a dramatic increase of the pairing strength above a pressure of ≈ 1.6 GPa giving direct evidence of the presence of a quantum critical point separating a superconducting phase coexisting with CDW from a pure superconducting phase. The superconducting order parameter in both phases has the same s-wave symmetry. In spite of the conventional phonon-mediated BCS character of the weakly correlated (Ca 1-xSr x) 3Ir 4Sn 13 system the dependence of the effective superfluid density on the critical temperature puts this compound in the “Uemura” plot close to unconventional superconductors. This system exemplifies that conventional BCS superconductors in the presence of competing orders or multi-band structure can also display characteristics of unconventional superconductors.« less

Anomalous scaling of Δ C versus T c in the Fe-based superconductors: the $${S}_{\\pm }$$-wave pairing state model

DOE PAGES

Bang, Yunkyu; Stewart, G. R.

2016-02-01

The strong power law behavior of the specific heat jumpmore » $${\\rm{\\Delta }}C\\;$$ versus T c $$({\\rm{\\Delta }}C/{T}_{{\\rm{c}}}\\sim {T}_{{\\rm{c}}}^{\\alpha },\\alpha \\approx 2)$$, first observed by Bud'ko et al (2009 Phys. Rev. B 79 220516), has been confirmed with several families of the Fe-based superconducting compounds with various dopings. We tested a minimal two band BCS model to understand this anomalous behavior and showed that this non-BCS relation between $${\\rm{\\Delta }}C\\;$$ versus T c is a generic property of the multiband superconducting state paired by a dominant interband interaction ($${V}_{\\mathrm{inter}}\\gt {V}_{\\mathrm{intra}}$$) reflecting the relation $$\\frac{{{\\rm{\\Delta }}}_{{\\rm{h}}}}{{{\\rm{\\Delta }}}_{{\\rm{e}}}}\\sim \\sqrt{\\frac{{N}_{{\\rm{e}}}}{{N}_{{\\rm{h}}}}}$$ near T c, as in the $${S}_{\\pm }$$-wave pairing state. We also found that this $${\\rm{\\Delta }}C\\;$$ versus T c power law can continuously change from the ideal BNC scaling to a considerable deviation by a moderate variation of the impurity scattering rate $${{\\rm{\\Gamma }}}_{0}$$ (non-pair-breaking). Finally, as a result, our model provides a consistent explanation why the electron-doped Fe-based superconductors follow the ideal BNC scaling very well while the hole-doped systems often show varying degree of deviations.« less

Cooper-pair size and binding energy for unconventional superconducting systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dinóla Neto, F.; Neto, Minos A.; Salmon, Octavio D. Rodriguez

2018-06-01

The main proposal of this paper is to analyze the size of the Cooper pairs composed by unbalanced mass fermions from different electronic bands along the BCS-BEC crossover and study the binding energy of the pairs. We are considering an interaction between fermions with different masses leading to an inter-band pairing. In addiction to the attractive interaction we have an hybridization term to couple both bands, which in general acts unfavorable for the pairing between the electrons. We get first order phase transitions as the hybridization breaks the Cooper pairs for the s-wave symmetry of the gap amplitude. The results show the dependence of the Cooper-pair size as a function of the hybridization for T = 0 . We also propose the structure of the binding energy of the inter-band system as a function of the two-bands quasi-particle energies.

Landau-Zener interferometry in a Cooper pair box

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sillanpää, Mika; Lehtinen, Teijo; Paila, Antti; Makhlin, Yuriy; Hakonen, Pertti

2006-03-01

Quantum-mechanical systems having two crossing energy levels are ubiquitous in nature. The rate v = d (E1- E0)/dt at which such levels in a driven system approach each other determines the probability PLZ of a Landau-Zener (LZ) tunneling between them. The traditional treatment of the LZ process, however, ignores quantum-mechanical interference. Here we report an observation of phase-sensitive interference between consecutive LZ tunneling attempts in an artificial two-state system, a superconducting charge qubit. We interpret the experiment in terms of a multi-pass analog to the optical Mach- Zehnder interferometer: The beam splitting occurs by LZ tunneling at the charge degeneracy, while the arms of the Mach- Zehnder interferometer in energy space are represented by the ground and excited state. In accord with theory, we observe constructive interference when the Stokes phase φS picked up during the LZ interaction, and the dynamical phase of one drive period φ= (E1- E0) dt satisfy the condition: (φ- 2 φS) = m .2π. Our LZ interferometer can be used as a high-resolution detector for phase and charge owing to interferometric sensitivity- enhancement.

Prediction of an arc-tunable Weyl Fermion metallic state in Mo xW 1-xTe 2

DOE PAGES

Chang, Tay-Rong; Xu, Su-Yang; Chang, Guoqing; ...

2016-02-15

A Weyl semimetal is a new state of matter that hosts Weyl fermions as emergent quasiparticles. The Weyl fermions correspond to isolated points of bulk band degeneracy, Weyl nodes, which are connected only through the crystal’s boundary by exotic Fermi arcs. The length of the Fermi arc gives a measure of the topological strength, because the only way to destroy the Weyl nodes is to annihilate them in pairs in the reciprocal space. To date, Weyl semimetals are only realized in the TaAs class. Here, we propose a tunable Weyl state in Mo xW 1₋xTe 2 where Weyl nodes aremore » formed by touching points between metallic pockets. We show that the Fermi arc length can be changed as a function of Mo concentration, thus tuning the topological strength. Lastly,our results provide an experimentally feasible route to realizing Weyl physics in the layered compound Mo xW 1₋xTe 2, where non-saturating magneto-resistance and pressure-driven superconductivity have been observed.« less

Undoped high-Tc superconductivity in T'-La1.8Eu0.2CuO4+δ revealed by 63,65Cu and 139La NMR: Bulk superconductivity and antiferromagnetic fluctuations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fukazawa, Hideto; Ishiyama, Seiya; Goto, Masato; Kanamaru, Shuhei; Ohashi, Kohki; Kawamata, Takayuki; Adachi, Tadashi; Hirata, Michihiro; Sasaki, Takahiko; Koike, Yoji; Kohori, Yoh

2017-10-01

We performed 63,65Cu and 139La NMR measurements of T'-La1.8Eu0.2CuO4+δ (T'-LECO) with the Nd2CuO4-type structure (so-called T'-structure). As a result, we detected the 63,65Cu NMR signal under finite magnetic fields and found superconductivity without antiferromagnetic (AF) order only in the reduced T'-LECO, where excess apical oxygen atoms are properly removed. This indicates that the intrinsic ground state of the ideal T'-LECO is a paramagnetic and superconducting (SC) state. Below Tc, the Knight shift was found to rapidly decrease, which indicates the emergence of bulk superconductivity due to spin-singlet Cooper pairs in the reduced T'-LECO. In the SC state of the reduced T'-LECO, moreover, a characteristic temperature dependence of the spin-lattice relaxation rate 1/T1 was observed, which implies the existence of nodal lines in the SC gap. These findings suggest that the superconductivity in the reduced T'-LECO probably has d-wave symmetry. In the normal state of the reduced T'-LECO, on the other hand, AF fluctuations were found to exist from the temperature dependence of 1/T1T, though no clear pseudogap behavior was observed. This suggests that the AF correlation plays a key role in the superconductivity of undoped high-Tc cuprate superconductors with the T'-structure.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Smylie, M. P.; Willa, K.; Claus, H.

We present resistivity and magnetization measurements on proton-irradiated crystals demonstrating that the superconducting state in the doped topological insulator Nb xBi 2Se 3 (x = 0.25) is surprisingly robust against disorder-induced electron scattering. The superconducting transition temperature Tc decreases without indication of saturation with increasing defect concentration, and the corresponding scattering rates far surpass expectations based on conventional theory. The low-temperature variation of the London penetration depth Δλ(T) follows a power law [Δλ(T)~T 2] indicating the presence of symmetry-protected point nodes. Lastly, our results are consistent with the proposed robust nematic E u pairing state in this material.

10-Qubit Entanglement and Parallel Logic Operations with a Superconducting Circuit

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Song, Chao; Xu, Kai; Liu, Wuxin; Yang, Chui-ping; Zheng, Shi-Biao; Deng, Hui; Xie, Qiwei; Huang, Keqiang; Guo, Qiujiang; Zhang, Libo; Zhang, Pengfei; Xu, Da; Zheng, Dongning; Zhu, Xiaobo; Wang, H.; Chen, Y.-A.; Lu, C.-Y.; Han, Siyuan; Pan, Jian-Wei

2017-11-01

Here we report on the production and tomography of genuinely entangled Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states with up to ten qubits connecting to a bus resonator in a superconducting circuit, where the resonator-mediated qubit-qubit interactions are used to controllably entangle multiple qubits and to operate on different pairs of qubits in parallel. The resulting 10-qubit density matrix is probed by quantum state tomography, with a fidelity of 0.668 ±0.025 . Our results demonstrate the largest entanglement created so far in solid-state architectures and pave the way to large-scale quantum computation.

10-Qubit Entanglement and Parallel Logic Operations with a Superconducting Circuit.

PubMed

Song, Chao; Xu, Kai; Liu, Wuxin; Yang, Chui-Ping; Zheng, Shi-Biao; Deng, Hui; Xie, Qiwei; Huang, Keqiang; Guo, Qiujiang; Zhang, Libo; Zhang, Pengfei; Xu, Da; Zheng, Dongning; Zhu, Xiaobo; Wang, H; Chen, Y-A; Lu, C-Y; Han, Siyuan; Pan, Jian-Wei

2017-11-03

Here we report on the production and tomography of genuinely entangled Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states with up to ten qubits connecting to a bus resonator in a superconducting circuit, where the resonator-mediated qubit-qubit interactions are used to controllably entangle multiple qubits and to operate on different pairs of qubits in parallel. The resulting 10-qubit density matrix is probed by quantum state tomography, with a fidelity of 0.668±0.025. Our results demonstrate the largest entanglement created so far in solid-state architectures and pave the way to large-scale quantum computation.

Clamshell microwave cavities having a superconductive coating

DOEpatents

Cooke, D. Wayne; Arendt, Paul N.; Piel, Helmut

1994-01-01

A microwave cavity including a pair of opposing clamshell halves, such halves comprised of a metal selected from the group consisting of silver, copper, or a silver-based alloy, wherein the cavity is further characterized as exhibiting a dominant TE.sub.011 mode is provided together with an embodiment wherein the interior concave surfaces of the clamshell halves are coated with a superconductive material. In the case of copper clamshell halves, the microwave cavity has a Q-value of about 1.2.times.10.sup.5 as measured at a temperature of 10K and a frequency of 10 GHz.

Determination of gap solution and critical temperature in doped graphene superconductivity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Chenmei; Yang, Yisong

2017-04-01

It is shown that the gap solution and critical transition temperature are significantly enhanced by doping in a recently developed BCS formalism for graphene superconductivity in such a way that positive gap and transition temperature both occur in arbitrary pairing coupling as far as doping is present. The analytic construction of the BCS gap and transition temperature offers highly effective globally convergent iterative methods for the computation of these quantities. A series of numerical examples are presented as illustrations which are in agreement with the theoretical and experimental results obtained in the physics literature and consolidate the analytic understanding achieved.

Magnetic excitations in Kondo liquid: superconductivity and hidden magnetic quantum critical fluctuations

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Yang, Yifeng; Urbano, Ricardo; Nicholas, Curro

2009-01-01

We report Knight shift experiments on the superconducting heavy electron material CeCoIn{sub 5} that allow one to track with some precision the behavior of the heavy electron Kondo liquid in the superconducting state with results in agreement with BCS theory. An analysis of the {sup 115}In nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) spin-lattice relaxation rate T{sub 1}{sup -1} measurements under pressure reveals the presence of 2d magnetic quantum critical fluctuations in the heavy electron component that are a promising candidate for the pairing mechanism in this material. Our results are consistent with an antiferromagnetic quantum critical point (QCP) located at slightly negativemore » pressure in CeCoIn{sub 5} and provide additional evidence for significant similarities between the heavy electron materials and the high T{sub c} cuprates.« less

Continuous magnetic flux pump

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hildebrandt, A. F.; Elleman, D. D.; Whitmore, F. C. (Inventor)

1966-01-01

A method and means for altering the intensity of a magnetic field by transposing flux from one location to the location desired fro the magnetic field are examined. The device described includes a pair of communicating cavities formed in a block of superconducting material, is dimensioned to be insertable into one of the cavities and to substantially fill the cavity. Magnetic flux is first trapped in the cavities by establishing a magnetic field while the superconducting material is above the critical temperature at which it goes superconducting. Thereafter, the temperature of the material is reduced below the critical value, and then the exciting magnetic field may be removed. By varying the ratios of the areas of the two cavities, it is possible to produce a field having much greater flux density in the second, smaller cavity, into which the flux transposed.

Glide-Plane Symmetry and Superconducting Gap Structure of Iron-Based Superconductors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maier, Thomas

This talk will provide a review of the implications of the glide plane symmetry of a single Fe-pnictide/chalcogen plane on the structure of the superconducting gap. It will be shown that `` η-pairing'' with non-zero total momentum occurs inevitably in this system, but that its contribution to the superconducting condensate has the usual even parity symmetry and time reversal symmetry is preserved. I will demonstrate that for a single plane the gap function, which appears in physical quantities, is identical to that found in 1 Fe per unit cell pseudo-crystal momentum calculations and discuss the effects of the symmetry breaking out-of-plane hopping integrals in three dimensions. A portion of this research was conducted at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility.

Enhancement of superconducting transition temperature by pointlike disorder and anisotropic energy gap in FeSe single crystals

DOE PAGES

Teknowijoyo, S.; Cho, K.; Tanatar, M. A.; ...

2016-08-29

A highly anisotropic superconducting gap is found in single crystals of FeSe by studying the London penetration depth Δλ measured down to 50 mK in samples before and after 2.5 MeV electron irradiation. The gap minimum increases with introduced pointlike disorder, indicating the absence of symmetry-imposed nodes. Surprisingly, the superconducting transition temperature T c increases by 0.4 K from T c0 ≈ 8.8 K while the structural transition temperature T s decreases by 0.9 K from T s0 ≈ 91.2 K after electron irradiation. Finally, we discuss several explanations for the T c enhancement and propose that local strengthening ofmore » the pair interaction by irradiation-induced Frenkel defects most likely explains the phenomenon.« less

Sensitive Superconducting Gravity Gradiometer Constructed with Levitated Test Masses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Griggs, C. E.; Moody, M. V.; Norton, R. S.; Paik, H. J.; Venkateswara, K.

2017-12-01

We demonstrate basic operations of a two-component superconducting gravity gradiometer (SGG) that is constructed with a pair of magnetically levitated test masses coupled to superconducting quantum-interference devices. A design that gives a potential sensitivity of 1.4 ×10-4 E Hz-1 /2 (1 E ≡10-9 s-2 ) in the frequency band of 1 to 50 mHz and better than 2 ×10-5 E Hz-1 /2 between 0.1 and 1 mHz for a compact tensor SGG that fits within a 22-cm-diameter sphere. The SGG has the capability of rejecting the platform acceleration and jitter in all 6 degrees of freedom to one part in 109 . Such an instrument has applications in precision tests of fundamental laws of physics, earthquake early warning, and gravity mapping of Earth and the planets.

Pseudogap Behavior of the Nuclear Spin-Lattice Relaxation Rate in FeSe Probed by 77Se-NMR

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shi, Anlu; Arai, Takeshi; Kitagawa, Shunsaku; Yamanaka, Takayoshi; Ishida, Kenji; Böhmer, Anna E.; Meingast, Christoph; Wolf, Thomas; Hirata, Michihiro; Sasaki, Takahiko

2018-01-01

We conducted 77Se-nuclear magnetic resonance studies of the iron-based superconductor FeSe in magnetic fields of 0.6 to 19 T to investigate the superconducting and normal-state properties. The nuclear spin-lattice relaxation rate divided by the temperature (T1T)-1 increases below the structural transition temperature Ts but starts to be suppressed below T*, well above the superconducting transition temperature Tc(H), resulting in a broad maximum of (T1T)-1 at Tp(H). This is similar to the pseudogap behavior in optimally doped cuprate superconductors. Because T* and Tp(H) decrease in the same manner as Tc(H) with increasing H, the pseudogap behavior in FeSe is ascribed to superconducting fluctuations, which presumably originate from the theoretically predicted preformed pair above Tc(H).

Entanglement control in a superconducting qubit system by an electromagnetic field

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Y. Q.; Xu, J. B.

2011-08-01

By making use of the dynamical algebraic method we investigate a quantum system consisting of superconducting qubits interacting with data buses, where the qubits are driven by time-dependent electromagnetic field and obtain an explicit expression of time evolution operator. Furthermore, we explore the entanglement dynamics and the influence of the time-dependent electromagnetic field and the initial state on the entanglement sudden death and birth for the system. It is shown that the entanglement between the qubit and bus as well as the entanglement sudden death and birth can be controlled by the time-dependent electromagnetic field.

Conductor requirements for high-temperature superconducting utility power transformers

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pleva, E. F.; Mehrotra, V.; Schwenterly, S W

High-temperature superconducting (HTS) coated conductors in utility power transformers must satisfy a set of operating requirements that are driven by two major considerations-HTS transformers must be economically competitive with conventional units, and the conductor must be robust enough to be used in a commercial manufacturing environment. The transformer design and manufacturing process will be described in order to highlight the various requirements that it imposes on the HTS conductor. Spreadsheet estimates of HTS transformer costs allow estimates of the conductor cost required for an HTS transformer to be competitive with a similarly performing conventional unit.

Frequency-multiplexed bias and readout of a 16-pixel superconducting nanowire single-photon detector array

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Doerner, S.; Kuzmin, A.; Wuensch, S.; Charaev, I.; Boes, F.; Zwick, T.; Siegel, M.

2017-07-01

We demonstrate a 16-pixel array of microwave-current driven superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors with an integrated and scalable frequency-division multiplexing architecture, which reduces the required number of bias and readout lines to a single microwave feed line. The electrical behavior of the photon-sensitive nanowires, embedded in a resonant circuit, as well as the optical performance and timing jitter of the single detectors is discussed. Besides the single pixel measurements, we also demonstrate the operation of a 16-pixel array with a temporal, spatial, and photon-number resolution.

Fluxoids behavior in superconducting ladders

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sharon, Omri J.; Haham, Noam; Shaulov, Avner; Yeshurun, Yosef

2018-03-01

The nature of the interaction between fluxoids and between them and the external magnetic field is studied in one-dimensional superconducting networks. An Ising like expression is derived for the energy of a network revealing that fluxoids behave as repulsively interacting objects driven towards the network center by the effective applied field. Competition between these two interactions determines the equilibrium arrangement of fluxoids in the network as a function of the applied field. It is demonstrated that the fluxoids configurations are not always commensurate to the network symmetry. Incommensurate, degenerated configurations may be formed even in networks with an odd number of loops.

Nucleation of stable superconductivity in YBCO-films

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kötzler, J.

By means of the linear dynamic conductivity, inductively measured on epitaxial films between 30mHz and 30 MHz, the transition line T g (B) to generic superconductivity is studied in fields between B=0 and 19T. It follows closely the melting line T m (B) described recently in terms of a blowout of thermal vortex loops in clean materials. The critical exponents of the correlation length and time near T g (B), however, enem to be dominated by some intrinsic disorder. Columnar defects produced by heavy-ion irradiation up to field-equivalent-doses of B ϕ =10T lead to adisappointing reduction of T g (B→0) while for B>B ϕ the generic line of the pristine film is recovered. These novel results are also discussed in terms of a loop-driven destruction of generic superconductivity.

Quantum metallicity on the high-field side of the superconductor-insulator transition.

PubMed

Baturina, T I; Strunk, C; Baklanov, M R; Satta, A

2007-03-23

We investigate ultrathin superconducting TiN films, which are very close to the localization threshold. Perpendicular magnetic field drives the films from the superconducting to an insulating state, with very high resistance. Further increase of the magnetic field leads to an exponential decay of the resistance towards a finite value. In the limit of low temperatures, the saturation value can be very accurately extrapolated to the universal quantum resistance h/e2. Our analysis suggests that at high magnetic fields a new ground state, distinct from the normal metallic state occurring above the superconducting transition temperature, is formed. A comparison with other studies on different materials indicates that the quantum metallic phase following the magnetic-field-induced insulating phase is a generic property of systems close to the disorder-driven superconductor-insulator transition.

Superconducting properties of under- and over-doped BaxK1‑xBiO3 perovskite oxide

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Szczȩśniak, D.; Kaczmarek, A. Z.; Szczȩśniak, R.; Turchuk, S. V.; Zhao, H.; Drzazga, E. A.

2018-06-01

In this study, we investigate the thermodynamic properties of the BaxK1‑xBiO3 (BKBO) superconductor in the under- (x = 0.5) and over-doped (x = 0.7) regime, within the framework of the Migdal-Eliashberg formalism. The analysis is conducted to verify that the electron-phonon pairing mechanism is responsible for the induction of the superconducting phase in the mentioned compound. In particular, we show that BKBO is characterized by the relatively high critical value of the Coulomb pseudopotential, which changes with doping level and does not follow the Morel-Anderson model. In what follows, the corresponding superconducting band gap size and related dimensionless ratio are estimated to increase with the doping, in agreement with the experimental predictions. Moreover, the effective mass of electrons is found to take on high values in the entire doping and temperature region. Finally, the characteristic dimensionless ratios for the superconducting band gap, the critical magnetic field and the specific heat for the superconducting state are predicted to exceed the limits set within the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer theory, suggesting pivotal role of the strong-coupling and retardation effects in the analyzed compound. Presented results supplement our previous investigations and account for the strong-coupling phonon-mediated character of the superconducting phase in BKBO at any doping level.

From BCS to Vortices: A 40 Year Personal Journey through Superconductivity from Basic Research to Power Applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grant, Paul M.

2011-03-01

A century has passed since the discovery of superconductivity in Leiden followed 75 years later by the Great Leap Forward in Zuerich. This talk will chronicle the author's trajectory through the science and technology of superconductivity first taking off with his IBM career in fundamental research on organic and layered copper oxide perovskite superconductors to a final landing at EPRI to explore applications of the latter to the electric power industry. Although many fundamental mysteries remain with respect to the copper and iron compounds, especially regarding the BCS pairing mechanism, nonetheless a significant number of successful demonstrations of cables, rotating machinery, storage and power conditioning equipment employing both low-and high- T superconducting materials have been undertaken worldwide since the decade of the 1960s to the present. However, massive application to the power industry has yet to take place or be inserted into utility long-range planning. Although there will certainly be a relatively small number of opportunistic deployments in those situations where superconductivity has a compelling advantage over conventional technology, its time will more likely await a future revolution in energy and electricity infrastructure such as a symbiosis of nuclear and hydrogen with superconductivity. Perhaps the distant future will even deliver the dream of a room temperature superconductor. ``20th Anniversary of the Woodstock of Physics,'' APS March Meeting 2007, Denver, CO.

Narrow-band microwave radiation from a biased single-Cooper-pair transistor.

PubMed

Naaman, O; Aumentado, J

2007-06-01

We show that a single-Cooper-pair transistor (SCPT) electrometer emits narrow-band microwave radiation when biased in its subgap region. Photoexcitation of quasiparticle tunneling in a nearby SCPT is used to spectroscopically detect this radiation in a configuration that closely mimics a qubit-electrometer integrated circuit. We identify emission lines due to Josephson radiation and radiative transport processes in the electrometer and argue that a dissipative superconducting electrometer can severely disrupt the system it attempts to measure.

Using electron irradiation to probe iron-based superconductors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cho, Kyuil; Kończykowski, M.; Teknowijoyo, S.; Tanatar, M. A.; Prozorov, R.

2018-06-01

High-energy electron irradiation at low temperatures is an efficient and controlled way to create vacancy–interstitial Frenkel pairs in a crystal lattice, thereby inducing nonmagnetic point-like scattering centers. In combination with London penetration depth and resistivity measurements, the electron irradiation was used as a phase-sensitive probe to study the superconducting order parameter in iron-based superconductors (FeSCs), lending strong support to sign-changing s ± pairing. Here, we review the key results of the effect of electron irradiation in FeSCs.

Tunable Broadband Radiation Generated Via Ultrafast Laser Illumination of an Inductively Charged Superconducting Ring

PubMed Central

Bulmer, John; Bullard, Thomas; Dolasinski, Brian; Murphy, John; Sparkes, Martin; Pangovski, Krste; O’Neill, William; Powers, Peter; Haugan, Timothy

2015-01-01

An electromagnetic transmitter typically consists of individual components such as a waveguide, antenna, power supply, and an oscillator. In this communication we circumvent complications associated with connecting these individual components and instead combine them into a non-traditional, photonic enabled, compact transmitter device for tunable, ultrawide band (UWB) radiation. This device is a centimeter scale, continuous, thin film superconducting ring supporting a persistent super-current. An ultrafast laser pulse (required) illuminates the ring (either at a point or uniformly around the ring) and perturbs the super-current by the de-pairing and recombination of Cooper pairs. This generates a microwave pulse where both ring and laser pulse geometry dictates the radiated spectrum’s shape. The transmitting device is self contained and completely isolated from conductive components that are observed to interfere with the generated signal. A rich spectrum is observed that extends beyond 30 GHz (equipment limited) and illustrates the complex super-current dynamics bridging optical, THz, and microwave wavelengths. PMID:26659022

Development of pair distribution function analysis

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Vondreele, R.; Billinge, S.; Kwei, G.

1996-09-01

This is the final report of a 3-year LDRD project at LANL. It has become more and more evident that structural coherence in the CuO{sub 2} planes of high-{Tc} superconducting materials over some intermediate length scale (nm range) is important to superconductivity. In recent years, the pair distribution function (PDF) analysis of powder diffraction data has been developed for extracting structural information on these length scales. This project sought to expand and develop this technique, use it to analyze neutron powder diffraction data, and apply it to problems. In particular, interest is in the area of high-{Tc} superconductors, although wemore » planned to extend the study to the closely related perovskite ferroelectric materials andother materials where the local structure affects the properties where detailed knowledge of the local and intermediate range structure is important. In addition, we planned to carry out single crystal experiments to look for diffuse scattering. This information augments the information from the PDF.« less

Design of Current Leads for the MICE Coupling Magnet

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wang, Li; Li, L.K.; Wu, Hong

2008-04-02

A pair of superconducting coupling magnets will be part of the Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment (MICE). They were designed and will be constructed by the Institute of Cryogenics and Superconductivity Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, in collaboration with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The coupling magnet is to be cooled by using cryocoolers at 4.2K. In order to reduce the heat leak to the 4.2K cold mass from 300 K, a pair of current leads composed of conventional copper leads and high temperature superconductor (HTS) leads will be used to supply current to the magnet. This paper presents the optimization ofmore » the conventional conduction-cooled metal leads for the coupling magnet. Analyses on heat transfer down the leads using theoretical method and numerical simulation were carried out. The stray magnetic field around the HTS leads has been calculated and effects of the magnetic field on the performance of the HTS leads has also been analyzed.« less

Symmetry protected topological Luttinger liquids and the phase transition between them

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

None

2018-01-01

We show that a doped spin-1/2 ladder with antiferromagnetic intra-chain and ferromagnetic inter-chain coupling is a symmetry protected topologically non-trivial Luttinger liquid. Turning on a large easy-plane spin anisotropy drives the system to a topologically-trivial Luttinger liquid. Both phases have full spin gaps and exhibit power-law superconducting pair correlation. The Cooper pair symmetry is singletmore » $$d_{xy}$$ in the non-trivial phase and triplet $$S_z=0$$ in the trivial phase. The topologically non-trivial Luttinger liquid exhibits gapless spin excitations in the presence of a boundary, and it has no non-interacting or mean-field theory analog even when the fluctuating phase in the charge sector is pinned. As a function of the strength of spin anisotropy there is a topological phase transition upon which the spin gap closes. We speculate these Luttinger liquids are relevant to the superconductivity in metalized integer spin ladders or chains.« less

Superconducting materials with electron pairs localized on lattice ions

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Moizhes, B.Y.; Drabkin, I.A.

1983-07-01

We propose the following classification scheme for superconductors, depending on the probable type of electron--electron interaction: A) Semiconductors containing impurities with negative Hubbard energy in which pairs exist in r-space when T>T/sub c/: Pb/sub 1-x/Tl/sub x/Te, Ba(Pb/sub 1-x/Bi/sub x/)O/sub 3/xxx. In this case the superconducting phase transition must compete with the ordering of ions having different charges: Pb/sub 1-x/In/sub x/Te. B) Metals near the metal--insulator transition with virtual two-electron levels near the Fermi level: Na/sub x/WO/sub 3/. C) Metals containing ''active'' atoms (ions) with an odd number of electrons and a small Hubbard energy. We suggest that the contribution ofmore » diamagnetic polar configurations to the total energy of the metal can increase when coherent states are formed: Nb, La/sub 3/S/sub 4/, Nb/sub 1-x/Ti/sub x/xxx.« less

Theoretical approach to resonant inelastic x-ray scattering in iron-based superconductors at the energy scale of the superconducting gap

PubMed Central

Marra, Pasquale; van den Brink, Jeroen; Sykora, Steffen

2016-01-01

We develop a phenomenological theory to predict the characteristic features of the momentum-dependent scattering amplitude in resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) at the energy scale of the superconducting gap in iron-based super-conductors. Taking into account all relevant orbital states as well as their specific content along the Fermi surface we evaluate the charge and spin dynamical structure factors for the compounds LaOFeAs and LiFeAs, based on tight-binding models which are fully consistent with recent angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) data. We find a characteristic intensity redistribution between charge and spin dynamical structure factors which discriminates between sign-reversing and sign-preserving quasiparticle excitations. Consequently, our results show that RIXS spectra can distinguish between s± and s++ wave gap functions in the singlet pairing case. In addition, we find that an analogous intensity redistribution at small momenta can reveal the presence of a chiral p-wave triplet pairing. PMID:27151253

Possible superconductivity in Sr₂IrO₄ probed by quasiparticle interference.

PubMed

Gao, Yi; Zhou, Tao; Huang, Huaixiang; Wang, Qiang-Hua

2015-03-18

Based on the possible superconducting (SC) pairing symmetries recently proposed, the quasiparticle interference (QPI) patterns in electron- and hole-doped Sr₂IrO₄ are theoretically investigated. In the electron-doped case, the QPI spectra can be explained based on a model similar to the octet model of the cuprates while in the hole-doped case, both the Fermi surface topology and the sign of the SC order parameter resemble those of the iron pnictides and there exists a QPI vector resulting from the interpocket scattering between the electron and hole pockets. In both cases, the evolution of the QPI vectors with energy and their behaviors in the nonmagnetic and magnetic impurity scattering cases can well be explained based on the evolution of the constant-energy contours and the sign structure of the SC order parameter. The QPI spectra presented in this paper can be compared with future scanning tunneling microscopy experiments to test whether there are SC phases in electron- and hole-doped Sr₂IrO₄ and what the pairing symmetry is.

Phase separation of electrons strongly coupled with phonons in cuprates and manganites

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alexandrov, Sasha

2009-03-01

Recent advanced Monte Carlo simulations have not found superconductivity and phase separation in the Hubbard model with on-site repulsive electron-electron correlations. I argue that microscopic phase separations in cuprate superconductors and colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) manganites originate from a strong electron-phonon interaction (EPI) combined with unavoidable disorder. Attractive electron correlations, caused by an almost unretarded EPI, are sufficient to overcome the direct inter-site Coulomb repulsion in these charge-transfer Mott-Hubbard insulators, so that low energy physics is that of small polarons and small bipolarons. They form clusters localized by disorder below the mobility edge, but propagate as the Bloch states above the mobility edge. I identify the Froehlich EPI as the most essential for pairing and phase separation in superconducting layered cuprates. The pairing of oxygen holes into heavy bipolarons in the paramagnetic phase (current-carrier density collapse (CCDC)) explains also CMR and high and low-resistance phase coexistence near the ferromagnetic transition of doped manganites.

Evolution from BCS superconductivity to Bose condensation: Calculation of the zero-temperature phase coherence length

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pistolesi, F.; Strinati, G.C.

1996-06-01

We consider a fermionic system at zero temperature interacting through an effective nonretarded potential of the type introduced by Nozi{grave e}res and Schmitt-Rink, and calculate the {ital phase} coherence length {xi}{sub phase} (associated with the spatial fluctuations of the superconducting order parameter) by exploiting a functional-integral formulation for the correlation functions and the associated loop expansion. This formulation is especially suited to follow the evolution of the fermionic system from a BCS-type superconductor for weak coupling to a Bose-condensed system for strong coupling, since in the latter limit a {ital direct} mapping of the original fermionic system onto an effectivemore » system of bosons with a residual boson-boson interaction can be established. Explicit calculations are performed at the one-loop order. The phase coherence length {xi}{sub phase} is compared with the coherence length {xi}{sub pair} for two-electron correlation, which is relevant to distinguish the weak- ({ital k}{sub {ital F}}{xi}{sub pair}{gt}1) from the strong- ({ital k}{sub {ital F}}{xi}{sub pair}{lt}1) coupling limits ({ital k}{sub {ital F}} being the Fermi wave vector) {ital as} {ital well} {ital as} to follow the crossover in between. It is shown that {xi}{sub phase} coincides with {xi}{sub pair} down to {ital k}{sub {ital F}}{xi}{sub pair}{approx_equal}10, {xi}{sub pair} in turn coinciding with the Pippard coherence length. In the strong-coupling limit we find instead that {xi}{sub phase}{gt}{xi}{sub pair}, with {xi}{sub pair} coinciding with the radius of the bound-electron pair. From the mapping onto an effective system of bosons in the strong-coupling limit we further relate {xi}{sub pair} with the {open_quote}{open_quote}range{close_quote}{close_quote} of the residual boson-boson interaction, which is physically the only significant length associated with the dynamics of the bosonic system. {copyright} {ital 1996 The American Physical Society.}« less

Evidence of superconductivity-induced phonon spectra renormalization in alkali-doped iron selenides

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Opačić, M.; Lazarević, N.; Šćepanović, M.

2015-11-16

Polarized Raman scattering spectra of superconducting K x Fe2-y Se2 and non-superconducting K0.8Fe1.8Co0.2Se2 single crystals were measured in the temperature range from 10 K up to 300 K. Two Raman active modes from the I4/mmm phase and seven from the I4/m phase are observed in the frequency range from 150 to 325 cm-1 in both compounds, suggesting that the K0.8Fe1.8Co0.2Se2 single crystal also has a two-phase nature. The temperature dependence of the Raman mode energy is analyzed in terms of lattice thermal expansion and phonon–phonon interaction. The temperature dependence of the Raman mode linewidth is dominated by temperature-induced anharmonic effects. It is shown that the change in Raman mode energy with temperature is dominantly driven by thermal expansion of the crystal lattice. An abrupt change of the A1g mode energy nearmore » $${{T}_{\\text{C}}}$$ was observed in K x Fe2-y Se2, whereas it is absent in non-superconducting K0.8Fe1.8Co0.2Se2. Phonon energy hardening at low temperatures in the superconducting sample is a consequence of superconductivity-induced redistribution of the electronic states below the critical temperature.« less

From antiferromagnetic insulator to correlated metal in pressurized and doped LaMnPO.

PubMed

Simonson, J W; Yin, Z P; Pezzoli, M; Guo, J; Liu, J; Post, K; Efimenko, A; Hollmann, N; Hu, Z; Lin, H-J; Chen, C-T; Marques, C; Leyva, V; Smith, G; Lynn, J W; Sun, L L; Kotliar, G; Basov, D N; Tjeng, L H; Aronson, M C

2012-07-03

Widespread adoption of superconducting technologies awaits the discovery of new materials with enhanced properties, especially higher superconducting transition temperatures T(c). The unexpected discovery of high T(c) superconductivity in cuprates suggests that the highest T(c)s occur when pressure or doping transform the localized and moment-bearing electrons in antiferromagnetic insulators into itinerant carriers in a metal, where magnetism is preserved in the form of strong correlations. The absence of this transition in Fe-based superconductors may limit their T(c)s, but even larger T(c)s may be possible in their isostructural Mn analogs, which are antiferromagnetic insulators like the cuprates. It is generally believed that prohibitively large pressures would be required to suppress the effects of the strong Hund's rule coupling in these Mn-based compounds, collapsing the insulating gap and enabling superconductivity. Indeed, no Mn-based compounds are known to be superconductors. The electronic structure calculations and X-ray diffraction measurements presented here challenge these long held beliefs, finding that only modest pressures are required to transform LaMnPO, isostructural to superconducting host LaFeAsO, from an antiferromagnetic insulator to a metallic antiferromagnet, where the Mn moment vanishes in a second pressure-driven transition. Proximity to these charge and moment delocalization transitions in LaMnPO results in a highly correlated metallic state, the familiar breeding ground of superconductivity.

Pair momentum distribution in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O(8+delta) measured by positron annihilation - Existence and nature of the Fermi surface

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chan, L. P.; Lynn, K. G.; Harshman, D. R.; Massidda, S.; Mitzi, D. B.

1991-09-01

The first measurement is reported of the position-electron momentum density in superconducting single-crystal Bi2Sr2CaCu2O(8+delta)(Tc roughly 90 K). The observed anisotropy exhibits a twofold (rather than fourfold) symmetry, which is attributed to the superlattice modulation along the b axis of the BiO2 layers. Subtraction of the superlattice contribution also reveals a pair momentum distribution consistent with the CuO2 and BiO2 Fermi surfaces, and in reasonable agreement with the theoretical pair momentum density derived from band theory.

s± pairing near a Lifshitz transition

DOE PAGES

Mishra, Vivek; Scalapino, Douglas J.; Maier, Thomas A.

2016-08-26

Observations of robust superconductivity in some of the iron based superconductors in the vicinity of a Lifshitz point where a spin density wave instability is suppressed as the hole band drops below the Fermi energy raise questions for spin-fluctuation theories. In this paper we discuss spin-fluctuation pairing for a bilayer Hubbard model, which goes through such a Lifshitz transition. Our results show s± pairing with a transition temperature that peaks beyond the Lifshitz point and a gap function that has essentially the same magnitude but opposite sign on the incipient hole band as it does on the electron band thatmore » has a Fermi surface.« less

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pogosov, Walter V.; Institute for Theoretical and Applied Electrodynamics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Izhorskaya 13, 125412 Moscow; Combescot, Monique

While the one-Cooper-pair problem is now a textbook exercise, the energy of two pairs of electrons with opposite spins and zero total momentum has not been derived yet, the exact handling of Pauli blocking between bound pairs being not that easy for N=2 already. The two-Cooper-pair problem however is quite enlightening to understand the very peculiar role played by the Pauli exclusion principle in superconductivity. Pauli blocking is known to drive the change from 1 to N pairs but no precise description of this continuous change has been given so far. Using Richardson's procedure, we here prove that Pauli blockingmore » increases the free part of the two-pair ground-state energy but decreases the binding part when compared to two isolated pairs--the excitation gap to break a pair however increasing from one to two pairs. When extrapolated to the dense BCS regime, the decrease in the pair binding while the gap increases strongly indicates that at odd with common belief, the average pair binding energy cannot be on the order of the gap.« less

Universal spectral signatures in pnictides and cuprates: the role of quasiparticle-pair coupling.

PubMed

Sacks, William; Mauger, Alain; Noat, Yves

2017-11-08

Understanding the physical properties of a large variety of high-T c superconductors (SC), the cuprate family as well as the more recent iron-based superconductors, is still a major challenge. In particular, these materials exhibit the 'peak-dip-hump' structure in the quasiparticle density of states (DOS). The origin of this structure is explained within our pair-pair interaction (PPI) model: The non-superconducting state consists of incoherent pairs, a 'Cooper-pair glass' which, due to the PPI, undergoes a Bose-like condensation below T c to the coherent SC state. We derive the equations of motion for the quasiparticle operators showing that the DOS 'peak-dip-hump' is caused by the coupling between quasiparticles and excited pair states, or 'super-quasiparticles'. The renormalized SC gap function becomes energy-dependent and non retarded, reproducing accurately the experimental spectra of both pnictides and cuprates, despite the large difference in gap value.

A Josephson radiation comb generator.

PubMed

Solinas, P; Gasparinetti, S; Golubev, D; Giazotto, F

2015-07-20

We propose the implementation of a Josephson Radiation Comb Generator (JRCG) based on a dc superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) driven by an external magnetic field. When the magnetic flux crosses a diffraction node of the critical current interference pattern, the superconducting phase undergoes a jump of π and a voltage pulse is generated at the extremes of the SQUID. Under periodic drive this allows one to generate a sequence of sharp, evenly spaced voltage pulses. In the frequency domain, this corresponds to a comb-like structure similar to the one exploited in optics and metrology. With this device it is possible to generate up to several hundreds of harmonics of the driving frequency. For example, a chain of 50 identical high-critical-temperature SQUIDs driven at 1 GHz can deliver up to a 0.5 nW at 200 GHz. The availability of a fully solid-state radiation comb generator such as the JRCG, easily integrable on chip, may pave the way to a number of technological applications, from metrology to sub-millimeter wave generation.

Thermally Driven Inhibition of Superconducting Vortex Avalanches

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lara, Antonio; Aliev, Farkhad G.; Moshchalkov, Victor V.; Galperin, Yuri M.

2017-09-01

Complex systems close to their critical state can exhibit abrupt transitions—avalanches—between their metastable states. It is a challenging task to understand the mechanism of the avalanches and control their behavior. Here, we investigate microwave stimulation of avalanches in the so-called vortex matter of type-II superconductors—a system of interacting Abrikosov vortices close to the critical (Bean) state. Our main finding is that the avalanche incubation strongly depends on the excitation frequency, a completely unexpected behavior observed close to the so-called depinning frequencies. Namely, the triggered vortex avalanches in Pb superconducting films become effectively inhibited approaching the critical temperature or critical magnetic field when the microwave stimulus is close to the vortex depinning frequency. We suggest a simple model explaining the observed counterintuitive behaviors as a manifestation of the strongly nonlinear dependence of the driven vortex core size on the microwave excitation intensity. This paves the way to controlling avalanches in superconductor-based devices through their nonlinear response.

Noncentrosymmetric superconductor BeAu

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Amon, A.; Svanidze, E.; Cardoso-Gil, R.; Wilson, M. N.; Rosner, H.; Bobnar, M.; Schnelle, W.; Lynn, J. W.; Gumeniuk, R.; Hennig, C.; Luke, G. M.; Borrmann, H.; Leithe-Jasper, A.; Grin, Yu.

2018-01-01

Mixed spin-singlet and spin-triplet pairing can occur in noncentrosymmetric superconductors. In this respect, a comprehensive characterization of the noncentrosymmetric superconductor BeAu was carried out. It was established that BeAu undergoes a structural phase transition from a low-temperature noncentrosymmetric FeSi structure type to a high-temperature centrosymmetric structure in the CsCl type at Ts=860 K. The low-temperature modification exhibits a superconducting transition below Tc=3.3 K. The values of lower (Hc1=32 Oe) and upper (Hc2=335 Oe) critical fields are rather small, confirming that this type-II (κG-L=2.3 ) weakly coupled (λe-p=0.5 ,Δ Ce/γnTc≈1.26 ) superconductor can be well understood within the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer theory. The muon spin relaxation analysis indicates that the time-reversal symmetry is preserved when the superconducting state is entered, supporting conventional superconductivity in BeAu. From the density functional band structure calculations, a considerable contribution of the Be electrons to the superconducting state was established. On average, a rather small mass renormalization was found, consistent with the experimental data.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mcdonald, Ross David

The alkali-doped fullerides provide the first example of a transition from a three-dimensional Mott insulator to a superconductor, enabling the effects of both dimensionality and electron correlation on superconductivity to be explored. Chemically the alkali species tunes the superconductivity in the vicinity of the the Mott transition via sample volume. Measuring the relationship between the superconducting transition temperature and upper critical field reveals a crossover from weak- to strong-coupling associated with the dynamical Jahn–Teller effect as the Mott transition is approached. The use of pulsed magnets is required because the upper critical field is enhanced in the vicinity of themore » Mott insulating phase, reaching 90 T for RbxCs3-xC60 — the highest among cubic crystals. This required close collaboration between Prof Kasahara’s group and the Mag Lab to design rf-measurements compatible with sample encapsulation in an inert atmosphere. The concomitant increase of pairing strength with lattice volume near the Mott transition suggest that the cooperative interplay between molecular electronic structure and strong electron correlations plays a key role in realizing robust superconductivity (with high-T C and high-H C2).« less

Superconductivity versus quantum criticality: Effects of thermal fluctuations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Huajia; Wang, Yuxuan; Torroba, Gonzalo

2018-02-01

We study the interplay between superconductivity and non-Fermi liquid behavior of a Fermi surface coupled to a massless SU(N ) matrix boson near the quantum critical point. The presence of thermal infrared singularities in both the fermionic self-energy and the gap equation invalidates the Eliashberg approximation, and makes the quantum-critical pairing problem qualitatively different from that at zero temperature. Taking the large N limit, we solve the gap equation beyond the Eliashberg approximation, and obtain the superconducting temperature Tc as a function of N . Our results show an anomalous scaling between the zero-temperature gap and Tc. For N greater than a critical value, we find that Tc vanishes with a Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless scaling behavior, and the system retains non-Fermi liquid behavior down to zero temperature. This confirms and extends previous renormalization-group analyses done at T =0 , and provides a controlled example of a naked quantum critical point. We discuss the crucial role of thermal fluctuations in relating our results with earlier work where superconductivity always develops due to the special role of the first Matsubara frequency.

Superconductivity in Bismuth. A New Look at an Old Problem.

PubMed

Mata-Pinzón, Zaahel; Valladares, Ariel A; Valladares, Renela M; Valladares, Alexander

2016-01-01

To investigate the relationship between atomic topology, vibrational and electronic properties and superconductivity of bismuth, a 216-atom amorphous structure (a-Bi216) was computer-generated using our undermelt-quench approach. Its pair distribution function compares well with experiment. The calculated electronic and vibrational densities of states (eDOS and vDOS, respectively) show that the amorphous eDOS is about 4 times the crystalline at the Fermi energy, whereas for the vDOS the energy range of the amorphous is roughly the same as the crystalline but the shapes are quite different. A simple BCS estimate of the possible crystalline superconducting transition temperature gives an upper limit of 1.3 mK. The e-ph coupling is more preponderant in a-Bi than in crystalline bismuth (x-Bi) as indicated by the λ obtained via McMillan's formula, λc = 0.24 and experiment λa = 2.46. Therefore with respect to x-Bi, superconductivity in a-Bi is enhanced by the higher values of λ and of eDOS at the Fermi energy.

Direct penetration of spin-triplet superconductivity into a ferromagnet in Au/SrRuO3/Sr2RuO4 junctions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anwar, M. S.; Lee, S. R.; Ishiguro, R.; Sugimoto, Y.; Tano, Y.; Kang, S. J.; Shin, Y. J.; Yonezawa, S.; Manske, D.; Takayanagi, H.; Noh, T. W.; Maeno, Y.

2016-10-01

Efforts have been ongoing to establish superconducting spintronics utilizing ferromagnet/superconductor heterostructures. Previously reported devices are based on spin-singlet superconductors (SSCs), where the spin degree of freedom is lost. Spin-polarized supercurrent induction in ferromagnetic metals (FMs) is achieved even with SSCs, but only with the aid of interfacial complex magnetic structures, which severely affect information imprinted to the electron spin. Use of spin-triplet superconductors (TSCs) with spin-polarizable Cooper pairs potentially overcomes this difficulty and further leads to novel functionalities. Here, we report spin-triplet superconductivity induction into a FM SrRuO3 from a leading TSC candidate Sr2RuO4, by fabricating microscopic devices using an epitaxial SrRuO3/Sr2RuO4 hybrid. The differential conductance, exhibiting Andreev-reflection features with multiple energy scales up to around half tesla, indicates the penetration of superconductivity over a considerable distance of 15 nm across the SrRuO3 layer without help of interfacial complex magnetism. This demonstrates potential utility of FM/TSC devices for superspintronics.

The Pseudogap in Multiband Superconductivity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kristoffel, N.; Rubin, P.

2012-11-01

The pseudogap (PG) excitation is analyzed as a natural event in multiband superconductivity. It corresponds to minimal quasiparticle excitation energy of an electron band not touched by the chemical potential. The critical points of the phase diagram are determined by vanishing conditions for normal state pseudogaps (NPG). For two bands (gapped or overlapping) these are positioned on edges of the superconducting dome. Theoretical background for a three-band system with two interband pairing channels is developed. There are three independent superconducting gaps (SCG). The PG is associated with the band component possessing a bare gap which can be quenched by doping. At low doping the PG and the SCG of another band component coexist. The critical point is not fixed in respect of the transition temperature (Tc) dome background. The depletion of the PG associated states is restored here. This effect can also be indirect by the participation of these states in determining the chemical potential position. At the critical point the PG looses its normal state contribution and continues as the SCG of the same band. Illustrative examples on the doping scale have been calculated.

Superconductivity in Bismuth. A New Look at an Old Problem

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

To investigate the relationship between atomic topology, vibrational and electronic properties and superconductivity of bismuth, a 216-atom amorphous structure (a-Bi216) was computer-generated using our undermelt-quench approach. Its pair distribution function compares well with experiment. The calculated electronic and vibrational densities of states (eDOS and vDOS, respectively) show that the amorphous eDOS is about 4 times the crystalline at the Fermi energy, whereas for the vDOS the energy range of the amorphous is roughly the same as the crystalline but the shapes are quite different. A simple BCS estimate of the possible crystalline superconducting transition temperature gives an upper limit of 1.3 mK. The e-ph coupling is more preponderant in a-Bi than in crystalline bismuth (x-Bi) as indicated by the λ obtained via McMillan’s formula, λc = 0.24 and experiment λa = 2.46. Therefore with respect to x-Bi, superconductivity in a-Bi is enhanced by the higher values of λ and of eDOS at the Fermi energy. PMID:26815431

Reorientation of the diagonal double-stripe spin structure at Fe 1+yTe bulk and thin-film surfaces

DOE PAGES

Hanke, Torben; Singh, Udai Raj; Cornils, Lasse; ...

2017-01-06

Here, establishing the relation between ubiquitous antiferromagnetism in the parent compounds of unconventional superconductors and their superconducting phase is important for understanding the complex physics in these materials. Going from bulk systems to thin films additionally affects their phase diagram. For Fe 1+yTe, the parent compound of Fe 1+ySe 1$-x$Tex superconductors, bulk-sensitive neutron diffraction revealed an in-plane oriented diagonal double-stripe antiferromagnetic spin structure. Here we show by spin-resolved scanning tunnelling microscopy that the spin direction at the surfaces of bulk Fe 1+yTe and thin films grown on the topological insulator Bi 2Te 3 is canted out of the high-symmetry directionsmore » of the surface unit cell resulting in a perpendicular spin component, keeping the diagonal double-stripe order. As the magnetism of the Fe d-orbitals is intertwined with the superconducting pairing in Fe-based materials, our results imply that the superconducting properties at the surface of the related superconducting compounds might be different from the bulk.« less

Electrical and magnetic properties of superconducting-insulating Pr-doped GdBa2Cu3O7-y

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yamani, Z.; Akhavan, M.

1997-10-01

An extensive study of magnetic, electrical transport, and structural properties of the normal and superconducting states of Gd1-xPrxBa2Cu3O7-y (GdPr-123) are presented. Ceramic compounds have been synthesized by the solid-state reaction technique, and characterized by x-ray-diffraction, scanning-electron-microscopy, thermogravimetric, and differential-thermal analyses. The superconducting transition temperature is reduced with increasing Pr content x in a nonlinear manner, in contrast to Abrikosov-Gor'kov pair-breaking theory. Magnetic susceptibility measurements show that the nominal Pr valence is 3.86+, independently of x. A metal-insulator transition is observed at xcr~0.45, similar to that in the oxygen-deficient RBa2Cu3O7-y (R-123) system. Based on this resemblance, we suggest that both Pr doping and oxygen deficiency act through the same mechanism. Hence, the environment surrounding the CuO2 layers is important to high-Tc superconductivity (HTSC). In this sense, HTSC cannot completely be a two-dimentional feature. A chain-plane-correlation effect is plausible.

Reorientation of the diagonal double-stripe spin structure at Fe 1+yTe bulk and thin-film surfaces

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hanke, Torben; Singh, Udai Raj; Cornils, Lasse

Here, establishing the relation between ubiquitous antiferromagnetism in the parent compounds of unconventional superconductors and their superconducting phase is important for understanding the complex physics in these materials. Going from bulk systems to thin films additionally affects their phase diagram. For Fe 1+yTe, the parent compound of Fe 1+ySe 1$-x$Tex superconductors, bulk-sensitive neutron diffraction revealed an in-plane oriented diagonal double-stripe antiferromagnetic spin structure. Here we show by spin-resolved scanning tunnelling microscopy that the spin direction at the surfaces of bulk Fe 1+yTe and thin films grown on the topological insulator Bi 2Te 3 is canted out of the high-symmetry directionsmore » of the surface unit cell resulting in a perpendicular spin component, keeping the diagonal double-stripe order. As the magnetism of the Fe d-orbitals is intertwined with the superconducting pairing in Fe-based materials, our results imply that the superconducting properties at the surface of the related superconducting compounds might be different from the bulk.« less

Direct penetration of spin-triplet superconductivity into a ferromagnet in Au/SrRuO3/Sr2RuO4 junctions

PubMed Central

Anwar, M. S.; Lee, S. R.; Ishiguro, R.; Sugimoto, Y.; Tano, Y.; Kang, S. J.; Shin, Y. J.; Yonezawa, S.; Manske, D.; Takayanagi, H.; Noh, T. W.; Maeno, Y.

2016-01-01

Efforts have been ongoing to establish superconducting spintronics utilizing ferromagnet/superconductor heterostructures. Previously reported devices are based on spin-singlet superconductors (SSCs), where the spin degree of freedom is lost. Spin-polarized supercurrent induction in ferromagnetic metals (FMs) is achieved even with SSCs, but only with the aid of interfacial complex magnetic structures, which severely affect information imprinted to the electron spin. Use of spin-triplet superconductors (TSCs) with spin-polarizable Cooper pairs potentially overcomes this difficulty and further leads to novel functionalities. Here, we report spin-triplet superconductivity induction into a FM SrRuO3 from a leading TSC candidate Sr2RuO4, by fabricating microscopic devices using an epitaxial SrRuO3/Sr2RuO4 hybrid. The differential conductance, exhibiting Andreev-reflection features with multiple energy scales up to around half tesla, indicates the penetration of superconductivity over a considerable distance of 15 nm across the SrRuO3 layer without help of interfacial complex magnetism. This demonstrates potential utility of FM/TSC devices for superspintronics. PMID:27782151

Fluid-driven reciprocating apparatus and valving for controlling same

DOEpatents

Whitehead, John C.; Toews, Hans G.

1993-01-01

A control valve assembly for alternately actuating a pair of fluid-driven free-piston devices by using fluid pressure communication therebetween. Each control valve is switched by a pressure signal depending on the state of its counterpart's piston. The communication logic is arranged to provide overlap of the forward strokes of the pistons, so that at least one of the pair will always be pressurized. Thus, uninterrupted pumping of liquid is made possible from a pair of free-piston pumps. In addition, the speed and frequency of piston stroking is entirely dependent on the mechanical power load applied. In the case of a pair of pumps, this enables liquid delivery at a substantially constant pressure over the full range of flow rates, from zero to maximum flow. One embodiment of the invention utilized two pairs of fluid-driven free-piston devices whereby a bipropellant liquid propulsion system may be operated, so as to provide continuous flow of both fuel and oxidizer liquids when used in rocket applications, for example.

Tuning across the BCS-BEC crossover in superconducting Fe1+ySexTe1-x : An angle-resolved photoemission study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rinott, Shahar; Ribak, Amit; Chashka, Khanan; Randeria, Mohit; Kanigel, Amit

The crossover from Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) superconductivity to Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) was never realized in quantum materials. It is difficult to realize because, unlike in ultra cold atoms, one cannot tune the pairing interaction. We realize the BCS-BEC crossover in a nearly compensated semimetal Fe1+ySexTe1-x by tuning the Fermi energy ɛF via chemical doping, which permits us to systematically change Δ /ɛF from 0 . 16 to 0 . 50 , where Δ is the superconducting (SC) gap. We use angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy to measure the Fermi energy, the SC gap and characteristic changes in the SC state electronic dispersion as the system evolves from a BCS to a BEC regime. Our results raise important questions about the crossover in multi-band superconductors which go beyond those addressed in the context of cold atoms.

Quantum interference in heterogeneous superconducting-photonic circuits on a silicon chip.

PubMed

Schuck, C; Guo, X; Fan, L; Ma, X; Poot, M; Tang, H X

2016-01-21

Quantum information processing holds great promise for communicating and computing data efficiently. However, scaling current photonic implementation approaches to larger system size remains an outstanding challenge for realizing disruptive quantum technology. Two main ingredients of quantum information processors are quantum interference and single-photon detectors. Here we develop a hybrid superconducting-photonic circuit system to show how these elements can be combined in a scalable fashion on a silicon chip. We demonstrate the suitability of this approach for integrated quantum optics by interfering and detecting photon pairs directly on the chip with waveguide-coupled single-photon detectors. Using a directional coupler implemented with silicon nitride nanophotonic waveguides, we observe 97% interference visibility when measuring photon statistics with two monolithically integrated superconducting single-photon detectors. The photonic circuit and detector fabrication processes are compatible with standard semiconductor thin-film technology, making it possible to implement more complex and larger scale quantum photonic circuits on silicon chips.

Momentum dependence of the superconducting gap and in-gap states in MgB 2 multiband superconductor

DOE PAGES

Mou, Daixiang; Jiang, Rui; Taufour, Valentin; ...

2015-06-29

We use tunable laser-based angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy to study the electronic structure of the multiband superconductor MgB 2. These results form the baseline for detailed studies of superconductivity in multiband systems. We find that the magnitude of the superconducting gap on both σ bands follows a BCS-like variation with temperature with Δ 0 ~ 7meV. Furthermore, the value of the gap is isotropic within experimental uncertainty and in agreement with a pure s-wave pairing symmetry. We observe in-gap states confined to k F of the σ band that occur at some locations of the sample surface. As a result, themore » energy of this excitation, ~ 3 meV, was found to be somewhat larger than the previously reported gap on π Fermi sheet and therefore we cannot exclude the possibility of interband scattering as its origin.« less

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Moura, K. O.; Pirate, K. R.; Beron, F.

Samples of nanostructured β-Ga wires were synthesized by a novel method of metallic-flux nanonucleation. Several superconducting properties were observed, revealing the stabilization of a weak-coupling type-II-like superconductor (T c≈ 6.2 K) with a Ginzburg-Landau parameter κ GL = 1.18. This contrasts the type-I superconductivity observed for the majority of Ga phases, including small spheres of β-Ga with diameters near 15 μm. Remarkably, our magnetization curves reveal a crossover field H D, where we propose that the Abrikosov vortices are exactly touching their neighbors inside the Ga nanowires. A phenomenological model is proposed to explain this result by assuming that onlymore » a single row of vortices is allowed inside a nanowire under perpendicular applied field, with an appreciable depletion of Cooper pair density at the nanowire edges. Lastly, these results are expected to shed light on the growing area of superconductivity in nanostructured materials.« less

Anisotropic superconductivity and elongated vortices with unusual bound states in quasi-one-dimensional nickel-bismuth compounds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Wen-Lin; Zhang, Yi-Min; Lv, Yan-Feng; Ding, Hao; Wang, Lili; Li, Wei; He, Ke; Song, Can-Li; Ma, Xu-Cun; Xue, Qi-Kun

2018-04-01

We report low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy studies of Ni-Bi films grown by molecular beam epitaxy. Highly anisotropic and twofold symmetric superconducting gaps are revealed in two distinct composites, Bi-rich NiBi3 and near-equimolar NixBi , both sharing quasi-one-dimensional crystal structure. We further reveal axially elongated vortices in both phases, but Caroli-de Gennes-Matricon states solely within the vortex cores of NiBi3. Intriguingly, although the localized bound state splits energetically off at a finite distance ˜10 nm away from a vortex center along the minor axis of elliptic vortex, no splitting is found along the major axis. We attribute the elongated vortices and unusual vortex behaviors to the combined effects of twofold superconducting gap and Fermi velocity. The findings provide a comprehensive understanding of the electron pairing and vortex matter in quasi-one-dimensional superconductors.

Holographic superconductor on a novel insulator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ling, Yi; Liu, Peng; Wu, Jian-Pin; Wu, Meng-He

2018-01-01

We construct a holographic superconductor model, based on a gravity theory, which exhibits novel metal-insulator transitions. We investigate the condition for the condensation of the scalar field over the parameter space, and then focus on the superconductivity over the insulating phase with a hard gap, which is supposed to be Mott-like. It turns out that the formation of the hard gap in the insulating phase benefits the superconductivity. This phenomenon is analogous to the fact that the pseudogap phase can promote the pre-pairing of electrons in high {T}{{c}} cuprates. We expect that this work can shed light on understanding the mechanism of high {T}{{c}} superconductivity from the holographic side. Supported by Natural Science Foundation of China (11575195, 11775036, 11305018), Y.L. also acknowledges the support from Jiangxi young scientists (JingGang Star) program and 555 talent project of Jiangxi Province. J. P. Wu is also supported by Natural Science Foundation of Liaoning Province (201602013)

Charge-transfer mechanisms for high-T/sub c/ superconductivity

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jarrell, M.; Krishnamurthy, H.R.; Cox, D.L.

1988-09-01

We report results from a Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) analysis of the Weber d-d exciton model of the high-temperature superconductors. The pairing between oxygen holes is mediated by localized intrasite charge-transfer excitations between the d/sub x//sub <2/-y/sup =/ and the d/sub 3//sub z//sub <2/-r/sup =/ Cu orbitals. For reasonable oxygen on-site Coulomb energies, we find s-wave superconductivity for low filling fraction (<0.44), and d-wave superconductivity for larger filling. The same symmetry analysis applies to a localized version of the intersite Cu-O charge-transfer model of Varma, Schmitt-Rink, and Abrahams. We explore the limitations imposed by the Weber model symmetry, and interpret optical datamore » based upon the d-d exciton picture. We briefly discuss the suppression of antiferromagnetism of the Cu moments by the Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yoshida interaction in the metallic limit.« less

Hour-glass magnetic excitations induced by nanoscopic phase separation in cobalt oxides.

PubMed

Drees, Y; Li, Z W; Ricci, A; Rotter, M; Schmidt, W; Lamago, D; Sobolev, O; Rütt, U; Gutowski, O; Sprung, M; Piovano, A; Castellan, J P; Komarek, A C

2014-12-23

The magnetic excitations in the cuprate superconductors might be essential for an understanding of high-temperature superconductivity. In these cuprate superconductors the magnetic excitation spectrum resembles an hour-glass and certain resonant magnetic excitations within are believed to be connected to the pairing mechanism, which is corroborated by the observation of a universal linear scaling of superconducting gap and magnetic resonance energy. So far, charge stripes are widely believed to be involved in the physics of hour-glass spectra. Here we study an isostructural cobaltate that also exhibits an hour-glass magnetic spectrum. Instead of the expected charge stripe order we observe nano phase separation and unravel a microscopically split origin of hour-glass spectra on the nano scale pointing to a connection between the magnetic resonance peak and the spin gap originating in islands of the antiferromagnetic parent insulator. Our findings open new ways to theories of magnetic excitations and superconductivity in cuprate superconductors.

Spin Resonance in the New-Structure-Type Iron-Based Superconductor CaKFe4As4

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Iida, Kazuki; Ishikado, Motoyuki; Nagai, Yuki; Yoshida, Hiroyuki; Christianson, Andrew D.; Murai, Naoki; Kawashima, Kenji; Yoshida, Yoshiyuki; Eisaki, Hiroshi; Iyo, Akira

2017-09-01

The dynamical spin susceptibility in the new-structure-type iron-based superconductor CaKFe4As4 was investigated by using a combination of inelastic neutron scattering (INS) measurements and random phase approximation (RPA) calculations. Powder INS measurements show that the spin resonance at Qres = 1.17(1) Å-1, corresponding to the (π ,π ) nesting wave vector in tetragonal notation, evolves below Tc. The characteristic energy of the spin resonance Eres = 12.5 meV is smaller than twice the size of the superconducting gap (2Δ). The broad energy feature of the dynamical susceptibility of the spin resonance can be explained by the RPA calculations, in which the different superconducting gaps on different Fermi surfaces are taken into account. Our INS and PRA studies demonstrate that the superconducting pairing nature in CaKFe4As4 is the s± symmetry.

Quantum interferometer based on GaAs/InAs core/shell nanowires connected to superconducting contacts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haas, F.; Dickheuer, S.; Zellekens, P.; Rieger, T.; Lepsa, M. I.; Lüth, H.; Grützmacher, D.; Schäpers, Th

2018-06-01

An interferometer structure was realized based on a GaAs/InAs core/shell nanowire and Nb superconducting electrodes. Two pairs of Nb contacts are attached to the side facets of the nanowire allowing for carrier transport in three different orientations. Owing to the core/shell geometry, the current flows in the tubular conductive InAs shell. In transport measurements with superconducting electrodes directly facing each other, indications of a Josephson supercurrent are found. In contrast for junctions in diagonal and longitudinal configuration a deficiency current is observed, owing to the weaker coupling on longer distances. By applying a magnetic field along the nanowires axis pronounced h/2e flux-periodic oscillations are measured in all three contact configurations. The appearance of these oscillations is explained in terms of interference effects in the Josephson supercurrent and long-range phase-coherent Andreev reflection.

Quantum memristor in a superconducting circuit

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Salmilehto, Juha; Sanz, Mikel; di Ventra, Massimiliano; Solano, Enrique

Memristors, resistive elements that retain information of their past, have garnered interest due to their paradigm-changing potential in information processing and electronics. The emergent hysteretic behaviour allows for novel architectural applications and has recently been classically demonstrated in a simplified superconducting setup using the phase-dependent conductance in the tunnel-junction-microscopic model. In this contribution, we present a truly quantum model for a memristor constructed using established elements and techniques in superconducting nanoelectronics, and explore the parameters for feasible operation as well as refine the methods for quantifying the memory retention. In particular, the memristive behaviour is shown to arise from quasiparticle-induced tunneling in the full dissipative model and can be observed in the phase-driven tunneling current. The relevant hysteretic behaviour should be observable using current state-of-the-art measurements for detecting quasiparticle excitations. Our theoretical findings constitute the first quantum memristor in a superconducting circuit and act as the starting point for designing further circuit elements that have non-Markovian characteristics The authors acknowledge support from the CCQED EU project and the Finnish Cultural Foundation.

Electride and superconductivity behaviors in Mn5Si3-type intermetallics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Yaoqing; Wang, Bosen; Xiao, Zewen; Lu, Yangfan; Kamiya, Toshio; Uwatoko, Yoshiya; Kageyama, Hiroshi; Hosono, Hideo

2017-08-01

Electrides are unique in the sense that they contain localized anionic electrons in the interstitial regions. Yet they exist with a diversity of chemical compositions, especially under extreme conditions, implying generalized underlying principles for their existence. What is rarely observed is the combination of electride state and superconductivity within the same material, but such behavior would open up a new category of superconductors. Here, we report a hexagonal Nb5Ir3 phase of Mn5Si3-type structure that falls into this category and extends the electride concept into intermetallics. The confined electrons in the one-dimensional cavities are reflected by the characteristic channel bands in the electronic structure. Filling these free spaces with foreign oxygen atoms serves to engineer the band topology and increase the superconducting transition temperature to 10.5 K in Nb5Ir3O. Specific heat analysis indicates the appearance of low-lying phonons and two-gap s-wave superconductivity. Strong electron-phonon coupling is revealed to be the pairing glue with an anomalously large ratio between the superconducting gap Δ0 and Tc, 2Δ0/kBTc = 6.12. The general rule governing the formation of electrides concerns the structural stability against the cation filling/extraction in the channel site.