167 research outputs found
Superconductivity and Charge Density Wave in a Quasi-One-Dimensional Spin Gap System
We consider a model of spin-gapped chains weakly coupled by Josephson and
Coulomb interactions. Combining such non-perturbative methods as bosonization
and Bethe ansatz to treat the intra-chain interactions with the Random Phase
Approximation for the inter-chain couplings and the first corrections to this,
we investigate the phase diagram of this model. The phase diagram shows both
charge density wave ordering and superconductivity. These phases are seperated
by a line of critical points which exhibits an approximate an SU(2) symmetry.
We consider the effects of a magnetic field on the system. We apply the theory
to the material Sr_2 Ca_12 Cu_24 O_41 and suggest further experiments.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figure; submitted to PRB; Revised with new version:
references added; section on the flux state remove
Inherent Inhomogeneities in Tunneling Spectra of BSCCO Crystals in the Superconducting State
Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy on cleaved BSCCO(2212) single crystals reveal
inhomogeneities on length-scales of 30 . While most of the surface
yields spectra consistent with a d-wave superconductor, small regions show a
doubly gapped structure with both gaps lacking coherence peaks and the larger
gap having a size typical of the respective pseudo-gap for the same sample.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Low energy collective modes, Ginzburg-Landau theory, and pseudogap behavior in superconductors with long-range pairing interactions
We study the superconducting instability in systems with long but finite
ranged, attractive, pairing interactions. We show that such long-ranged
superconductors exhibit a new class of fluctuations in which the internal
structure of the Cooper pair wave function is soft, and thus lead to
"pseudogap" behavior in which the actual transition temperature is greatly
depressed from its mean field value. These fluctuations are {\it not} phase
fluctuations of the standard superconducting order parameter, and lead to a
highly unusual Ginzburg-Landau description. We suggest that the crossover
between the BCS limit of a short-ranged attraction and our problem is of
interest in the context of superconductivity in the underdoped cuprates.Comment: 20 pages with one embedded ps figure. Minor revisions to the text and
references. Final version to appear in PRB on Nov. 1st, 200
Interacting Electrons on a Fluctuating String
We consider the problem of interacting electrons constrained to move on a
fluctuating one-dimensional string. An effective low-energy theory for the
electrons is derived by integrating out the string degrees of freedom to lowest
order in the inverse of the string tension and mass density, which are assumed
to be large. We obtain expressions for the tunneling density of states, the
spectral function and the optical conductivity of the system. Possible
connections with the phenomenology of the cuprate high temperature
superconductors are discussed.Comment: 14 pages, 1 figur
Conductivity Due to Classical Phase Fluctuations in a Model For High-T_c Superconductors
We consider the real part of the conductivity, \sigma_1(\omega), arising from
classical phase fluctuations in a model for high-T_c superconductors. We show
that the frequency integral of that conductivity, \int_0^\infty \sigma_1
d\omega, is non-zero below the superconducting transition temperature ,
provided there is some quenched disorder in the system. Furthermore, for a
fixed amount of quenched disorder, this integral at low temperatures is
proportional to the zero-temperature superfluid density, in agreement with
experiment. We calculate \sigma_1(\omega) explicitly for a model of overdamped
phase fluctuations.Comment: 4pages, 2figures, submitted to Phys.Rev.
Pair Phase Fluctuations and the Pseudogap
The single-particle density of states and the tunneling conductance are
studied for a two-dimensional BCS-like Hamiltonian with a d_{x^2-y^2}-gap and
phase fluctuations. The latter are treated by a classical Monte Carlo
simulation of an XY model. Comparison of our results with recent scanning
tunneling spectra of Bi-based high-T_c cuprates supports the idea that the
pseudogap behavior observed in these experiments can be understood as arising
from phase fluctuations of a d_{x^2-y^2} pairing gap whose amplitude forms on
an energy scale set by T_c^{MF} well above the actual superconducting
transition.Comment: 5 pages, 6 eps-figure
Models for Enhanced Absorption in Inhomogeneous Superconductors
We discuss the low-frequency absorption arising from quenched inhomogeneity
in the superfluid density rho_s of a model superconductor. Such inhomogeneities
may arise in a high-T_c superconductor from a wide variety of sources,
including quenched random disorder and static charge density waves such as
stripes. Using standard classical methods for treating randomly inhomogeneous
media, we show that both mechanisms produce additional absorption at finite
frequencies. For a two-fluid model with weak mean-square fluctuations <(d
rho_s)^2 > in rho_s and a frequency-independent quasiparticle conductivity, the
extra absorption has oscillator strength proportional to the quantity <(d
rho_s)^2>/rho_s, as observed in some experiments. Similar behavior is found in
a two-fluid model with anticorrelated fluctuations in the superfluid and normal
fluid densities. The extra absorption typically occurs as a Lorentzian centered
at zero frequency. We present simple model calculations for this extra
absorption under conditions of both weak and strong fluctuations. The relation
between our results and other model calculations is briefly discussed
Impurity induced resonant state in a pseudogap state of a high temperature superconductor
We predict a resonance impurity state generated by the substitution of one Cu
atom with a nonmagnetic atom, such as Zn, in the pseudogap state of a high-T_c
superconductor. The precise microscopic origin of the pseudogap is not
important for this state to be formed, in particular this resonance will be
present even in the absence of superconducting fluctuations in the normal
state. In the presence of superconducting fluctuations, we predict the
existence of a counterpart impurity peak on a symmetric bias.
The nature of impurity resonance is similar to the previously studied
resonance in the d-wave superconducting state.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Phase-fluctuation induced reduction of the kinetic energy at the superconducting transition
Recent reflectivity measurements provide evidence for a "violation" of the
in-plane optical integral in the underdoped high-T_c compound
Bi_2Sr_2CaCu_2O_{8+\delta} up to frequencies much higher than expected by
standard BCS theory. The sum rule violation may be related to a loss of
in-plane kinetic energy at the superconducting transition. Here, we show that a
model based on phase fluctuations of the superconducting order parameter can
account for this change of in-plane kinetic energy at T_c. The change is due to
a transition from a phase-incoherent Cooper-pair motion in the pseudogap regime
above T_c to a phase-coherent motion at T_c.Comment: 5 pages, 3 eps-figure
The low-energy phase-only action in a superconductor: a comparison with the XY model
The derivation of the effective theory for the phase degrees of freedom in a
superconductor is still, to some extent, an open issue. It is commonly assumed
that the classical XY model and its quantum generalizations can be exploited as
effective phase-only models. In the quantum regime, however, this assumption
leads to spurious results, such as the violation of the Galilean invariance in
the continuum model. Starting from a general microscopic model, in this paper
we explicitly derive the effective low-energy theory for the phase, up to
fourth-order terms. This expansion allows us to properly take into account
dynamic effects beyond the Gaussian level, both in the continuum and in the
lattice model. After evaluating the one-loop correction to the superfluid
density we critically discuss the qualitative and quantitative differences
between the results obtained within the quantum XY model and within the correct
low-energy theory, both in the case of s-wave and d-wave symmetry of the
superconducting order parameter. Specifically, we find dynamic anharmonic
vertices, which are absent in the quantum XY model, and are crucial to restore
Galilean invariance in the continuum model. As far as the more realistic
lattice model is concerned, in the weak-to-intermediate-coupling regime we find
that the phase-fluctuation effects are quantitatively reduced with respect to
the XY model. On the other hand, in the strong-coupling regime we show that the
correspondence between the microscopically derived action and the quantum XY
model is recovered, except for the low-density regime.Comment: 29 pages, 11 figures. Slightly revised presentation, accepted for
publication in Phys. Rev.
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