34 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
Critical currents in Josephson junctions, with unconventional pairing symmetry: versus
Phenomenological Ginzburg-Landau theory is used to calculate the possible
spontaneous vortex states that may exist at corner junctions of
-wave, (where or ) and s-wave superconductors.
We study the magnetic flux and the critical current modulation with the
junction orientation angle , the magnitude of the order parameter, and
the magnetic field . It is seen that the critical current versus the
magnetic flux relation is symmetric / asymmetric for when
the orientation is exactly such that the lobes of the dominant
-wave order parameter points towards the two junctions, which are
at right angles for the corner junction. The conclusion is that a measurement
of the relation may distinguish which symmetry ( or
) the order parameter has.Comment: 11 pages with 11 figures, Changed conten
Spontaneous magnetization and Hall effect in superconductors with broken time-reversal symmetry
Broken time reversal symmetry (BTRS) in d wave superconductors is studied and
is shown to yield current carrying surface states. The corresponding
spontaneous magnetization is temperature independent near the critical
temperature Tc for weak BTRS, in accord with recent data. For strong BTRS and
thin films we expect a temperature dependent spontaneous magnetization with a
paramagnetic anomaly near Tc. The Hall conductance is found to vanish at zero
wavevector q and finite frequency w, however at finite q,w it has an unusual
structure.Comment: 7 pages, 1 eps figure, Europhysics Letters (in press
Local density of states for the corner geometry interface of d-wave superconductors, within the extended Hubbard model
The spatial variations of the order parameter, and the local density of
states (LDOS) on the corner of s-wave or -wave superconductors, as
well as in superconductor-insulator-normal metal interfaces, are calculated
self consistently using the Bogoliubov-deGennes formalism within the two
dimensional extended Hubbard model. The exact diagonalization method is used.
Due to the suppression of the dominant d-wave order parameter, the extended
s-wave order parameter is induced near the surface, that alternates its sign
for the topmost sites at adjacent edges of the lattice and decays to zero in
the bulk. The presence of surface roughness results into the appearance of the
zero band conduction peak (ZBCP) near the corner surface which lacks from the
predictions of the quasiclassical theory.Comment: 13 pages with 17 figure
Andreev Reflection and Spin Injection into and wave Superconductors
We study the effect of spin injection into and wave superconductors,
with an emphasis on the interplay between boundary and bulk spin transport
properties. The quantities of interest include the amount of non-equilibrium
magnetization (), as well as the induced spin-dependent current () and
boundary voltage (). In general, the Andreev reflection makes each of the
three quantities depend on a different combination of the boundary and bulk
contributions. The situation simplifies either for half-metallic ferromagnets
or in the strong barrier limit, where both and depend solely on the
bulk spin transport/relaxation properties. The implications of our results for
the on-going spin injection experiments in high cuprates are discussed.Comment: 4 pages, REVTEX, 1 figure included; typos correcte
Density of states "width parity" effect in d-wave superconducting quantum wires
We calculate the density of states (DOS) in a clean mesoscopic d-wave
superconducting quantum wire, i.e. a sample of infinite length but finite width
. For open boundary conditions, the DOS at zero energy is found to be zero
if is even, and nonzero if is odd. At finite chemical potential, all
chains are gapped but the qualtitative differences between even and odd
remain.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures, new figures and extended discussio
Transport properties of ferromagnet/d-wave superconductor/ferromagnet double junctions
We investigate transport properties of a trilayer made of a d-wave
superconductor connected to two ferromagnetic electrodes. Using Keldysh
formalism we show that crossed Andreev reflection and elastic cotunneling exist
also with d-wave superconductors. Their properties are controlled by the
existence of zero energy states due to the anisotropy of the d-wave pair
potential.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures, revised versio