437 research outputs found
Fluctuation spectroscopy of granularity in superconducting structures
We suggest to use `fluctuation spectroscopy' as a method to detect
granularity in a disordered metal close to a superconducting transition. We
show that with lowering temperature the resistance of a system of
relatively large grains initially grows due to the fluctuation suppression of
the one-electron tunneling but decreases with further lowering due to the
coherent charge transfer of the fluctuation Cooper pairs. Under certain
conditions, such a maximum in turns out to be sensitive to weak magnetic
fields due to a novel Maki -- Thompson type mechanism.Comment: A final version, as published; the introduction and summary are
considerably revise
Quantum Fluctuations and Dynamic Clustering of Fluctuating Cooper Pairs
We derive exact expressions for the fluctuation conductivity in two
dimensional superconductors as a function of temperature and magnetic field in
the whole fluctuation region above the upper critical field H_{c2}(T). Focusing
on the vicinity of the quantum phase transition near zero temperature, we
propose that as the magnetic field approaches the line near H_{c2}(0) from
above, a peculiar dynamic state consisting of clusters of coherently rotating
fluctuation Cooper-pairs forms and estimate the characteristic size and
lifetime of such clusters. We find the zero temperature magnetic field
dependence of the the transverse magnetoconductivity above H_{c2}(0) in layered
superconductors.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Quantization of entropy in a quasi-two-dimensional electron gas
We demonstrate that the partial entropy of a two-dimensional electron gas
(2DEG) exhibits quantized peaks at resonances between the chemical potential
and electron levels of size quantization. In the limit of no scattering, the
peaks depend only on the subband quantization number and are independent on
material parameters, shape of the confining potential, electron effective mass
and temperature. The quantization of partial entropy is a signature of a
topological phase transition in a 2DEG. In the presence of stationary disorder,
the magnitude of peaks decreases. Its deviation from the quantized values is a
direct measure of the disorder induced smearing of the electronic density of
states.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Absence of singular superconducting fluctuation corrections to thermal conductivity
We evaluate the superconducting fluctuation corrections to thermal
conductivity in the normal state which diverge as T approaches T_c. We find
zero total contribution for one, two and three-dimensional superconductors for
arbitrary impurity concentration. The method used is diagrammatic many-body
theory, and all contributions -- Aslamazov-Larkin (AL), Maki-Thompson (MT), and
density-of-states (DOS) -- are considered. The AL contribution is convergent,
whilst the divergences of the DOS and MT diagrams exactly cancel.Comment: 4 pages text; 2 figure
Strong compensation of the quantum fluctuation corrections in clean superconductor
The theory of fluctuation conductivity for an arbitrary impurity
concentration including ultra-clean limit is developed. It is demonstrated that
the formal divergency of the fluctuation density of states contribution
obtained previously for the clean case is removed by the correct treatment of
the non-local ballistic electron scattering. We show that in the ultra-clean
limit () the density-of-states quantum
corrections are canceled by the Maki-Thompson term and only quasi-classical
paraconductivity remains.Comment: 7 pages 2 figure
The Ferromagnetism in the Vicinity of Lifshitz Topological Transitions
We show that the critical temperature of a ferromagnetic phase transition in
a quasi-two-dimensional hole gas confined in a diluted magnetic semiconductor
quantum well strongly depends on the hole chemical potential and hole density.
The significant variations of the the Curie temperature occur close to the
Lifshitz topological transition points where the hole Fermi surface acquires
additional components of topological connectivity due to the filling of excited
size-quantization subbands. The model calculations demonstrate that the Curie
temperature can be doubled by a small variation of the gate voltage for the
CdMnTe/CdMgTe quantum well based device
Spherical functions on the de Sitter group
Matrix elements and spherical functions of irreducible representations of the
de Sitter group are studied on the various homogeneous spaces of this group. It
is shown that a universal covering of the de Sitter group gives rise to
quaternion Euler angles. An explicit form of Casimir and Laplace-Beltrami
operators on the homogeneous spaces is given. Different expressions of the
matrix elements and spherical functions are given in terms of multiple
hypergeometric functions both for finite-dimensional and unitary
representations of the principal series of the de Sitter group.Comment: 40 page
Gaussian superconducting fluctuations, thermal transport, and the Nernst effect
We calculate the contribution of superconducting fluctuations to thermal
transport in the normal state, for low magnetic fields. We do so in the
Gaussian approximation to their critical dynamics which is also the
Aslamazov-Larkin approximation in the microscopics. Our results for the thermal
conductivity tensor and the transverse thermoelectric response are new. The
latter compare favorably with the data of Ong and collaborators on the Nernst
effect in the cuprates.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure; improved introduction, minor changes; published
versio
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