The fate of quasiparticles in the superconducting state

Quasiparticle properties in the superconducting state are masked by the superfluid and are not directly accessible to infrared spectroscopy. We show how one can use a Kramers--Kronig transformation to separate the quasiparticle from superfluid response and extract intrinsic quasiparticle properties in the superconducting state. We also address the issue of a narrow quasiparticle peak observed in microwave measurements, and demonstrate how it can be combined with infrared measurements to obtain unified picture of electrodynamic properties of cuprate superconductors

ScGAN: A Generative Adversarial Network to Predict Hypothetical Superconductors

Despite having been discovered more than three decades ago, High Temperature Superconductors (HTSs) lack both an explanation for their mechanisms and a systematic way to search for them. To aid this search, this project proposes ScGAN, a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) to efficiently predict new superconductors. ScGAN was trained on compounds in OQMD and then transfer learned onto the SuperCon database or a subset of it. Once trained, the GAN was used to predict superconducting candidates, and approximately 70\% of them were determined to be superconducting by a classification model--a 23-fold increase in discovery rate compared to manual search methods. Furthermore, more than 99\% of predictions were novel materials, demonstrating that ScGAN was able to potentially predict completely new superconductors, including several promising HTS candidates. This project presents a novel, efficient way to search for new superconductors, which may be used in technological applications or provide insight into the unsolved problem of high temperature superconductivity

An Infrared study of the Josephson vortex state in high-Tc cuprates

We report the results of the c-axis infrared spectroscopy of La_{2-x} Sr_x CuO_4 in high magnetic field oriented parallel to the CuO_2 planes. A significant suppression of the superfluid density with magnetic field rho_s(H) is observed for both underdoped (x=0.125) and overdoped (x=0.17) samples. We show that the existing theoretical models of the Josephson vortex state fail to consistently describe the observed effects and discuss possible reasons for the discrepancies

Signatures of electron-boson coupling in half-metallic ferromagnet Mn5_5Ge3_3: study of electron self-energy Σ(ω)\Sigma(\omega) obtained from infrared spectroscopy

We report results of our infrared and optical spectroscopy study of a half-metallic ferromagnet Mn$_5$Ge$_3$. This compound is currently being investigated as a potential injector of spin polarized currents into germanium. Infrared measurements have been performed over a broad frequency (50 - 50000 cm$^{-1}$) and temperature (10 - 300 K) range. From the complex optical conductivity $\sigma(\omega)$ we extract the electron self-energy $\Sigma(\omega)$. The calculation of $\Sigma(\omega)$ is based on novel numerical algorithms for solution of systems of non-linear equations. The obtained self-energy provides a new insight into electron correlations in Mn$_5$Ge$_3$. In particular, it reveals that charge carriers may be coupled to bosonic modes, possibly of magnetic origin

Charge order, metallic behavior and superconductivity in La_{2-x}Ba_xCuO_4 with x=1/8

The ab-plane optical properties of a cleaved single crystal of La_{2-x}Ba_xCuO_4 for x=1/8 (T_c ~ 2.4 K) have been measured over a wide frequency and temperature range. The low-frequency conductivity is Drude-like and shows a metallic response with decreasing temperature. However, below ~ 60 K, corresponding to the onset of charge-stripe order, there is a rapid loss of spectral weight below about 40 meV. The gapping of single-particle excitations looks surprisingly similar to that observed in superconducting La_{2-x}Sr_{x}CuO_4, including the presence of a residual Drude peak with reduced weight; the main difference is that the lost spectral weight moves to high, rather than zero, frequency, reflecting the absence of a bulk superconducting condensate.Comment: 4 pages, with 1 table and 3 figure

Electronic Structure and Charge Dynamics of Huesler Alloy Fe2TiSn Probed by Infrared and Optical Spectroscopy

We report on the electrodynamics of a Heusler alloy Fe2TiSn probed over four decades in energy: from the far infrared to the ultraviolet. Our results do not support the suggestion of Kondo-lattice behavior inferred from specific heat measurements. Instead, we find a conventional Drude-like response of free carriers, with two additional absorption bands centered at around 0.1 and 0.87 eV. The latter feature can be interpreted as excitations across a pseudogap, in accord with band structure calculations.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figure