371 research outputs found
Landau levels in the case of two degenerate coupled bands: kagome lattice tight-binding spectrum
The spectrum of charged particles hopping on a kagome lattice in a uniform
transverse magnetic field shows an unusual set of Landau levels at low field.
They are unusual in two respects: the lowest Landau levels are paramagnetic so
their energies decrease linearly with increasing field magnitude, and the
spacings between the levels are not equal. These features are shown to follow
from the degeneracy of the energy bands in zero magnetic field. We give a
general discussion of Landau levels in the case of two degenerate bands, and
show how the kagome lattice tight-binding model includes one special case of
this more general problem. We also discuss the consequences of this for the
behavior of the critical temperature of a kagome grid superconducting wire
network, which is the experimental system that originally motivated this work.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figure
Spin-Valve Effect of the Spin Accumulation Resistance in a Double Ferromagnet - Superconductor Junction
We have measured the transport properties of Ferromagnet - Superconductor
nanostructures, where two superconducting aluminum (Al) electrodes are
connected through two ferromagnetic iron (Fe) ellipsoids in parallel. We find
that, below the superconducting critical temperature of Al, the resistance
depends on the relative alignment of the ferromagnets' magnetization. This
spin-valve effect is analyzed in terms of spin accumulation in the
superconducting electrode submitted to inverse proximity effect
Coherent low-energy charge transport in a diffusive S-N-S junction
We have studied the current voltage characteristics of diffusive mesoscopic
Nb-Cu-Nb Josephson junctions with highly-transparent Nb-Cu interfaces. We
consider the low-voltage and high-temperature regime eV<\epsilon_{c}<k_{B}T
where epsilon_{c} is the Thouless energy. The observed excess current as well
as the observed sub-harmonic Shapiro steps under microwave irradiation suggest
the occurrence of low-energy coherent Multiple Andreev Reflection (MAR).Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, final versio
Re-entrance of the metallic conductance in a mesoscopic proximity superconductor
We present an experimental study of the diffusive transport in a normal metal
near a superconducting interface, showing the re-entrance of the metallic
conductance at very low temperature. This new mesoscopic regime comes in when
the thermal coherence length of the electron pairs exceeds the sample size.
This re-entrance is suppressed by a bias voltage given by the Thouless energy
and can be strongly enhanced by an Aharonov Bohm flux. Experimental results are
well described by the linearized quasiclassical theory.Comment: improved version submitted to Phys. Rev. lett., 4 pages, 5 included
epsf figure
Resistive transport in a mesoscopic proximity superconductor
We review transport measurements in a normal metal (N) in contact with one or
two superconducting (S) islands. From the experiment, we distinguish the
Josephson coupling, the mesoscopic fluctuations and the proximity effect. In a
loop-shaped N conductor, we observe large h/2e-periodic magnetoresistance
oscillations that decay with temperature T with a 1/T power-law. This behaviour
is the signature of the long-range coherence of the low-energy electron pairs
induced by the Andreev reflection at the S interface. At temperature and
voltage below the Thouless energy , we observe the re-entrance
of the metallic resistance. Experimental results agree with the linearized
quasiclassical theory.Comment: 8 pages, 6 included epsf figures, Invited paper at the LT21
Conference, Praha, August 1996. To appear in Czech. J. of Phys. 46, Part S6
(1996
Hofstadter butterfly and integer quantum Hall effect in three dimensions
For a three-dimensional lattice in magnetic fields we have shown that the
hopping along the third direction, which normally tends to smear out the Landau
quantization gaps, can rather give rise to a fractal energy spectram akin to
Hofstadter's butterfly when a criterion, found here by mapping the problem to
two dimensions, is fulfilled by anisotropic (quasi-one-dimensional) systems. In
3D the angle of the magnetic field plays the role of the field intensity in 2D,
so that the butterfly can occur in much smaller fields. The mapping also
enables us to calculate the Hall conductivity, in terms of the topological
invariant in the Kohmoto-Halperin-Wu's formula, where each of is found to be quantized.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, RevTeX, uses epsf.sty,multicol.st
Unexpected fourfold symmetry in the resistivity of patterned superconductors
We report the magneto-optical observation of a surprising fourfold symmetry of the flux penetration in a superconducting YBa2Cu3O7-delta thin-film disk containing a square array of antidots, leading to an angular variation of the critical current by a factor of nearly 2. This behavior is explained using a vortex channeling model. Potential applications in superconducting devices are discussed
Magneto-optical imaging of magnetic flux patterns in superconducting films with antidots
Superconducting YBaCuO thin films were equipped with a special arrangement of
antidots (holes) of 1 micron radius in order to guide the stream of magnetic
flux moving in (or out of) the sample. The flux distribution and its dynamics
were visualized using real-time magneto-optical imaging. It is clearly
demonstrated that one-dimensional antidot arrays strongly facilitate
propagation of magnetic flux. We also demonstrate a possibility to alter the
direction of flux motion in a controlled way by special arrangement of
intercepting antidot arrays. Our resolution was sufficient for observation of
flux in particular antidots, which allows a more detailed dynamic analysis of
such systems.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Physica C, Proc. of VORTEX-IV
Workshop on Crete-200
Two interacting Hofstadter butterflies
The problem of two interacting particles in a quasiperiodic potential is
addressed. Using analytical and numerical methods, we explore the spectral
properties and eigenstates structure from the weak to the strong interaction
case. More precisely, a semiclassical approach based on non commutative
geometry techniques permits to understand the intricate structure of such a
spectrum. An interaction induced localization effect is furthermore emphasized.
We discuss the application of our results on a two-dimensional model of two
particles in a uniform magnetic field with on-site interaction.Comment: revtex, 12 pages, 11 figure
Structure of the superconducting state in a fully frustrated wire network with dice lattice geometry
The superconducting state in a fully frustrated wire network with the dice
lattice geometry is investigated in the vicinity of the transition temperature.
Using Abrikosov's variational procedure, we write the Ginzburg-Landau free
energy functional projected on its unstable supspace as an effective model on
the triangular lattice of sixfold coordinated sites. For this latter model, we
obtain a large class of degenerate equilibrium configurations in one to one
correspondence with those previously constructed for the pure XY model on the
maximally frustrated dice lattice. The entropy of these states is proportional
to the linear size of the system. Finally we show that magnetic interactions
between currents provide a degeneracy lifting mechanism.Comment: The final version (as published in Phys. Rev. B). Substantial
corrections have been made to Sec.
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