Broadening of the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition by correlated disorder

The Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transition in two-dimensional superconductors is usually expected to be protected against disorder. However, its fingerprints in a real system, such as, e.g., the universal superfluid- density jump, are often at odds with this expectation. Here, we show that the disorder-induced granularity of the superconducting state modifies the nucleation mechanism for vortex-antivortex pairs. This leads to a considerable smearing of the universal superfluid-density jump as compared to the paradigmatic clean case, in agreement with experimental observations

BKT universality class in the presence of correlated disorder

The correct detection of the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transition in quasi-two-dimensional superconductors still remains a controversial issue. Its main signatures, indeed, are often at odds with the theoretical expectations. In a recent work\cite{me} we have shown that the presence of spatially correlated disorder plays a key role in this sense being it the reason underlying the experimentally-observed smearing of the universal superfluid-density jump. In the present paper, we closely investigate the effects of correlated disorder on the BKT transition, addressing specifically the issue whether it changes or not the BKT universality class.Comment: The present paper has already been submitted as Special Issue "Proceedings of the conference SuperFluctuations 2017

Unconventional dc transport in Rashba electron gases

We discuss the transport properties of a disordered two-dimensional electron gas with strong Rashba spin-orbit coupling. We show that in the high-density regime where the Fermi energy overcomes the energy associated with spin-orbit coupling, dc transport is accurately described by a standard Drude's law, due to a non-trivial compensation between the suppression of back-scattering and the relativistic correction to the quasi-particle velocity. On the contrary, when the system enters the opposite dominant spin-orbit regime, Drude's paradigm breaks down and the dc conductivity becomes strongly sensitive to the spin-orbit coupling strength, providing a suitable tool to test the entanglement between spin and charge degrees of freedom in theseComment: 6 pages, 4 figures+Supplemental Material. To appear in Phys. Rev. Let

Disordered XY model: effective medium theory and beyond

We study the effect of uncorrelated random disorder on the temperature dependence of the superfluid stiffness in the two-dimensional classical XY model. By means of a perturbative expansion in the disorder potential, equivalent to the T-matrix approximation, we provide an extension of the effective-medium-theory result able to describe the low-temperature stiffness, and its separate diamagnetic and paramagnetic contributions. These analytical results provide an excellent description of the Monte Carlo simulations for two prototype examples of uncorrelated disorder. Our findings offer an interesting perspective on the effects of quenched disorder on longitudinal phase fluctuations in two-dimensional superfluid systems.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure

Comparison of osmotic dehydration of Dixiland and Elegant Lady peach slices in glucose and sucrose solutions

PosterPeach (Prunus persica) is a stone fruit with a fleshy pulp and a delicate aroma. Peach provides vitamins, fiber and antioxidant compounds, among others. Nevertheless, it is a perishable fruit. Dried fruit (D) is a strategy to maintain the provision of this healthy fruit during the whole year. Osmotic dehydration (OD) previous conventional drying is a pre treatment applied to fresh fruit in order to prevent browning or sugar caramelization during prolonged hot air exposure. Here, the effects of sugar type and cultivar on the nutritional and nutraceutical properties were studied using slices of peach of two commercial cultivars Dixiland (DX) and Elegant Lady (EL) using OD with sucrose or glucose as a pretreatment before conventional drying (D)EEA San PedroFil: Salvañal, Lara. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro de Estudios Fotosintéticos y Bioquímicos; ArgentinaFil: Salvañal, Lara. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas. Centro de Estudios Fotosintéticos y Bioquímicos; ArgentinaFil: Gabilondo, Julieta. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria San Pedro; ArgentinaFil: Budde, Claudio Olaf. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria San Pedro; ArgentinaFil: Corbino, Graciela Beatriz. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria San Pedro; ArgentinaFil: Lara, María Valeria. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro de Estudios Fotosintéticos y Bioquímicos; ArgentinaFil: Lara, María Valeria.Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas. Centro de Estudios Fotosintéticos y Bioquímicos; Argentin

Generalized Josephson plasmons in bilayer superconductors

Layered superconductors like High-Tc cuprates display out-of-plane plasma oscillations between layers sustained by the weak Josephson coupling among the superconducting sheets, the so-called Josephson plasmons. Bilayer cuprates hosts two of such modes, but due to the anisotropy of the electronic response their description at generic wavevector cannot be separated from that of the in-plane oscillations. In this paper we provide an analytical theoretical framework able to describe the dispersions and the polarizations of the generalized plasma modes of such systems, that has been only partly addressed by previous work in the literature. We then employ it to explain the peculiar characteristics of their linear optical response, by providing a fully microscopic explanation for the appearance of a finite-frequency peak in the real part of the optical conductivity. On a wider perspective, the complete characterization of the Josephson plasma modes provided by our approach represents a groundwork to address open issues raised by recent experiments with strong THz pulses, able to drive them beyond the linear-response regime.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figure

Charge density response in layered metals: retardation effects, generalized plasma waves and their spectroscopic signatures

Transverse plasma polaritons and longitudinal plasmons describe the propagation of light-matter modes in an isotropic metal. However, in a layered metal the anisotropy of the bare electromagnetic response mixes the longitudinal and transverse excitations, making the distinction between polariton and plasmon blurred at small wavevectors, where retardation effects of the electromagnetic interactions become quantitatively relevant. In the usual Kubo approach for the linear response, this effect appears as a mixing between the density and the transverse current fluctuations, that requires to revise the standard RPA approach for density correlations where only the instantaneous Coulomb potential is included. In this paper we derive the general expression for the density and current correlation functions at long wavelength in a layered metal, showing that below a crossover scale set by the anisotropy of the plasma frequencies retardation effects make the dispersion of the generalized plasma modes different from the standard RPA result. In addition, the mixed longitudinal and transverse nature of these excitations reflects in a double-peak structure for the density response, that can be eventually accessed by means of high-momentum resolution electron-energy-loss or X-rays spectroscopies.Comment: 22 pages, 3 figure

Mesogen polarity effects on biaxial nematics. Centrally located dipoles

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