Isotope effect on the superfluid density in conventional and high-temperature superconductors

We investigate the isotope effect on the London penetration depth of a superconductor which measures $n_S/m^*$, the ratio of superfluid density to effective mass. We use a simplified model of electrons weakly coupled to a single phonon frequency $\omega_E$, but assume that the energy gap $\Delta$ does not have any isotope effect. Nevertheless we find an isotope effect for $n_S/m^*$ which is significant if $\Delta$ is sufficiently large that it becomes comparable to $\omega_E$, a regime of interest to high $T_c$ cuprate superconductors and possibly other families of unconventional superconductors with relatively high $T_c$. Our model is too simple to describe the cuprates and it gives the wrong sign of the isotope effect when compared with experiment, but it is a proof of principle that the isotope effect exists for $n_S/m^*$ in materials where the pairing gap and $T_c$ is not of phonon origin and has no isotope effect.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure

Transport phenomena in three-dimensional system close to the magnetic quantum critical point: The conserving approximation with the current vertex corrections

It is known that various transport coefficients strongly deviate from conventional Fermi-liquid behaviors in many electron systems which are close to antiferromagnetic (AF) quantum critical points (QCP). For example, Hall coefficients and Nernst coefficients in three-dimensional heavy fermion CeCoIn5 and CeCu6-xAux increase strikingly at low temperatures, whose overall behaviors are similar to those in high-Tc cuprates. These temperature dependences are too strong to explain in terms of the relaxation time approximation. To elucidate the origin of these anomalous transport phenomena in three-dimensional systems, we study the current vertex corrections (CVC) based on the fluctuation exchange (FLEX) approximation, and find out decisive role of the CVC. The main finding of the present paper is that the Hall coefficient and the Nernst coefficient strongly increase thanks to the CVC in the vicinity of the AF QCP, irrespective of dimensionality. We also study the relaxation time of quasi-particles, and find that "hot points" and "cold lines" are formed in general three-dimensional systems due to strong AF fluctuations.Comment: 11 pages, 18 figures. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Calculating critical temperatures of superconductivity from a renormalized Hamiltonian

It is shown that one can obtain quantitatively accurate values for the superconducting critical temperature within a Hamiltonian framework. This is possible if one uses a renormalized Hamiltonian that contains an attractive electron-electron interaction and renormalized single particle energies. It can be obtained by similarity renormalization or using flow equations for Hamiltonians. We calculate the critical temperature as a function of the coupling using the standard BCS-theory. For small coupling we rederive the McMillan formula for Tc. We compare our results with Eliashberg theory and with experimental data from various materials. The theoretical results agree with the experimental data within 10%. Renormalization theory of Hamiltonians provides a promising way to investigate electron-phonon interactions in strongly correlated systems.Comment: 6 pages, LaTeX, using EuroPhys.sty, one eps figure included, accepted for publication in Europhys. Let

The electron-phonon coupling strength at metal surfaces directly determined from the Helium atom scattering Debye-Waller factor

A new quantum-theoretical derivation of the elastic and inelastic scattering probability of He atoms from a metal surface, where the energy and momentum exchange with the phonon gas can only occur through the mediation of the surface free-electron density, shows that the Debye-Waller exponent is directly proportional to the electron-phonon mass coupling constant $\lambda$. The comparison between the values of $\lambda$ extracted from existing data on the Debye-Waller factor for various metal surfaces and the $\lambda$ values known from literature indicates a substantial agreement, which opens the possibility of directly extracting the electron-phonon coupling strength in quasi-2D conducting systems from the temperature or incident energy dependence of the elastic Helium atom scattering intensities.Comment: 14 pages, 2 figures, 1 tabl

Temperature dependence of the superheating field for superconductors in the high-k London limit

We study the metastability of the superheated Meissner state in type II superconductors with k >> 1 beyond Ginzburg-Landau theory, which is applicable only in the vicinity of the critical temperature. Within Eilenberger's semiclassical approximation, we use the local electrodynamic response of the superconductor to derive a generalized thermodynamic potential valid at any temperature. The stability analysis of this functional yields the temperature dependence of the superheating field. Finally, we comment on the implications of our results for superconducting cavities in particle accelerators.Comment: 7.5 pages, 2 figure

The Complex Gap in Color Superconductivity

We solve the gap equation for color-superconducting quark matter in the 2SC phase, including both the energy and the momentum dependence of the gap, \phi=\phi(k_0,\vk). For that purpose a complex Ansatz for \phi is made. The calculations are performed within an effective theory for cold and dense quark matter. The solution of the complex gap equation is valid to subleading order in the strong coupling constant g and in the limit of zero temperature. We find that, for momenta sufficiently close to the Fermi surface and for small energies, the dominant contribution to the imaginary part of $\phi$ arises from Landau-damped magnetic gluons. Further away from the Fermi surface and for larger energies the other gluon sectors have to be included into Im\phi. We confirm that Im$\phi$ contributes a correction of order g to the prefactor of \phi for on-shell quasiquarks sufficiently close to the Fermi surface, whereas further away from the Fermi surface Im\phi and Re\phi are of the same order. Finally, we discuss the relevance of Im\phi for the damping of quasiquark excitations.Comment: 23 pages, 3 figures, 8 tables. Typos corrected, minor corrections to the text. Accepted for publication in PR

Electron-Phonon Coupling in High-Temperature Cuprate Superconductors Determined from Electron Relaxation Rates

We determined electronic relaxation times via pump-probe optical spectroscopy using sub-15 fs pulses for the normal state of two different cuprate superconductors.We show that the primary relaxation process is the electron-phonon interaction and extract a measure of its strength, the second moment of the Eliashberg function\lambda=800\pm200 meV^{2} for La_{1.85}Sr_{0.15}CuO_{4} and \lambda=400\pm100 meV^{2} for YBa_{2}Cu_{3}O_{6.5}. These values suggest a possible fundamental role of the electron-phonon interaction in the superconducting pairing mechanism.Comment: As published in PR

Phonon deficit effect and solid state refrigerators based on superconducting tunnel junctions

Thin film devices have the advantage of being extremely compact, operate in a continuous mode, dissipate little power, and can easily be integrated in cryogenic detectors. Motivated by such possibilities, we investigate the phonon deficit effect in thin film $SIS$ (superconductor--insulator--superconductor) and $SIN$ tunnel junctions. Under certain circumstances, the phonon absorption spectra of such tunnel junctions have spectral windows of phonon absorption/emission. We propose to use phonon filters to select the phonon absorbtion windows and thus to enhance the cooling effect. Membranes attached to such tunnel junctions can be cooled in this way more effectively. We discuss a particular superlattice design of corresponding phonon filters.Comment: 8 pages 7 figure