29 research outputs found
Spontaneously broken translational symmetry at edges of high-temperature superconductors: thermodynamics in magnetic field
We investigate equilibrium properties, including structure of the order
parameter, superflow patterns, and thermodynamics of low-temperature surface
phases of layered d_{x^2-y^2}-wave superconductors in magnetic field. At zero
external magnetic field, time-reversal symmetry and continuous translational
symmetry along the edge are broken spontaneously in a second order phase
transition at a temperature , where is the
superconducting transition temperature. At the phase transition there is a jump
in the specific heat that scales with the ratio between the edge length and
layer area as , where is
the jump in the specific heat at the d-wave superconducting transition and
is the superconducting coherence length. The phase with broken symmetry
is characterized by a gauge invariant superfluid momentum that
forms a non-trivial planar vector field with a chain of sources and sinks along
the edges with a period of approximately , and saddle point
disclinations in the interior. To find out the relative importance of
time-reversal and translational symmetry breaking we apply an external field
that breaks time-reversal symmetry explicitly. We find that the phase
transition into the state with the non-trivial vector field keeps
its main signatures, and is still of second order. In the external field, the
saddle point disclinations are pushed towards the edges, and thereby a chain of
edge motifs are formed, where each motif contains a source, a sink, and a
saddle point. Due to a competing paramagnetic response at the edges, the phase
transition temperature is slowly suppressed with increasing magnetic
field strength, but the phase with broken symmetry survives into the mixed
state.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figure
Spontaneous symmetry-breaking at surfaces of -wave superconductors: influence of geometry and surface ruggedness
Surfaces of -wave superconductors may host a substantial density of
zero-energy Andreev states. The zero-energy flat band appears due to a
topological constraint, but comes with a cost in free energy. We have recently
found that an adjustment of the surface states can drive a phase transition
into a phase with finite superflow that breaks time-reversal symmetry and
translational symmetry along the surface. The associated Doppler shifts of
Andreev states to finite energies lower the free energy. Direct experimental
verification of such a phase is still technically difficult and controversial,
however. To aid further experimental efforts, we use the quasiclassical theory
of superconductivity to investigate how the realization and the observability
of such a phase are influenced by sample geometry and surface ruggedness. Phase
diagrams are produced for relevant geometric parameters. In particular,
critical sizes and shapes are identified, providing quantitative guidelines for
sample fabrication in the experimental hunt for symmetry-breaking phases.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure
Graphene Nanogap for Gate Tunable Quantum Coherent Single Molecule Electronics
We present atomistic calculations of quantum coherent electron transport
through fulleropyrrolidine terminated molecules bridging a graphene nanogap. We
predict that three difficult problems in molecular electronics with single
molecules may be solved by utilizing graphene contacts: (1) a back gate
modulating the Fermi level in the graphene leads facilitate control of the
device conductance in a transistor effect with high on/off current ratio; (2)
the size mismatch between leads and molecule is avoided, in contrast to the
traditional metal contacts; (3) as a consequence, distinct features in charge
flow patterns throughout the device are directly detectable by scanning
techniques. We show that moderate graphene edge disorder is unimportant for the
transistor function.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure
Effect of point-contact transparency on coherent mixing of Josephson and transport supercurrents
The influence of electron reflection on dc Josephson effect in a ballistic
point contact with transport current in the banks is considered theoretically.
The effect of finite transparency on the vortex-like currents near the contact
and at the phase difference which has been predicted recently
\cite{KOSh}, is investigated. We show that at low temperatures even a small
reflection on the contact destroys the mentioned vortex-like current states,
which can be restored by increasing of the temperature.Comment: 6 pages, 8 Figures, Latex Fil
Theory of Thermal Conductivity in High-Tc Superconductors below Tc: Comparison between Hole-Doped and Electron-Doped Systems
In hole-doped high-Tc superconductors, thermal conductivity increases
drastically just below Tc, which has been considered as a hallmark of a nodal
gap. In contrast, such a coherence peak in thermal conductivity is not visible
in electron-doped compounds, which may indicate a full-gap state such as a
(d+is)-wave state. To settle this problem, we study the thermal conductivity in
the Hubbard model using the fluctuation-exchange (FLEX) approximation, which
predicts that the nodal d-wave state is realized in both hole-doped and
electron-doped compounds. The contrasting behavior of thermal conductivity in
both compounds originates from the differences in the hot/cold spot structure.
In general, a prominent coherence peak in thermal conductivity appears in
line-node superconductors only when the cold spot exists on the nodal line.Comment: 5 pages, to be published in J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. Vol.76 No.
Hamiltonian approach to the ac Josephson effect in superconducting-normal hybrid systems
The ac Josephson effect in hybrid systems of a normal mesoscopic conductor
coupled to two superconducting (S) leads is investigated theoretically. A
general formula of the ac components of time-dependent current is derived which
is valid for arbitrary interactions in the normal region. We apply this formula
to analyze a S-normal-S system where the normal region is a noninteracting
single level quantum dot. We report the physical behavior of time-averaged
nonequilibrium distribution of electrons in the quantum dot, the formation of
Andreev bound states, and ac components of the time-dependent current. The
distribution is found to exhibit a population inversion; and all Andreev bound
states between the superconducting gap carry the same amount of
current and in the same flow direction. The ac components of time-dependent
current show strong oscillatory behavior in marked contrast to the subharmonic
gap structure of the average current.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figures, LaTe
Josephson current in s-wave superconductor / Sr_2RuO_4 junctions
The Josephson current between an s-wave and a spin-triplet superconductor
SrRuO (SRO) is studied theoretically. In spin-singlet / spin-triplet
superconductor junctions, there is no Josephson current proportional to in the absence of the spin-flip scattering near junction interfaces,
where is a phase-difference across junctions. Thus a dominant term of
the Josephson current is proportional to . The spin-orbit
scattering at the interfaces gives rise to the Josephson current proportional
to , which is a direct consequence of the chiral paring symmetry in
SRO
Josephson effect in d-wave superconductor junctions in a lattice model
Josephson current between two d-wave superconductors is calculated by using a
lattice model. Here we consider two types of junctions, , the parallel
junction and the mirror-type junction. The maximum Josephson current
shows a wide variety of temperature () dependence depending on the
misorientation angles and the types of junctions. When the misorientation
angles are not zero, the Josephson current shows the low-temperature anomaly
because of a zero energy state (ZES) at the interfaces. In the case of
mirror-type junctions, has a non monotonic temperature dependence. These
results are consistent with the previous results based on the quasiclassical
theory. [Y. Tanaka and S. Kashiwaya: Phys. Rev. B \textbf{56} (1997) 892.] On
the other hand, we find that the ZES disappears in several junctions because of
the Freidel oscillations of the wave function, which is peculiar to the lattice
model. In such junctions, the temperature dependence of is close to the
Ambegaokar-Baratoff relation.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures, using jpsj2.cls and oversite.st