Dirty two-band superconductivity with interband pairing order

We study theoretically the effects of random nonmagnetic impurities on the superconducting transition temperature $T_c$ in a two-band superconductor characterized by an equal-time s-wave interband pairing order parameter. The Fermi-Dirac statistics of electrons allows a spin-triplet s-wave pairing order as well as a spin-singlet s-wave order parameter due to the two-band degree of freedom. In a spin-singlet superconductor, $T_c$ is insensitive to the impurity concentration when we estimate the self-energy due to the random impurity potential within the Born approximation. On the other hand in a spin-triplet superconductor, $T_c$ decreases with the increase of the impurity concentration. We conclude that Cooper pairs belonging to odd-band-parity symmetry class are fragile under the random impurity potential even though they have s-wave pairing symmetry.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures embedde

Josephson effect in two-band superconductors

We study theoretically the Josephson effect between two time-reversal two-band superconductors, where we assume the equal-time spin-singlet $s$-wave pair potential in each conduction band. %as well as the band asymmetry and the band hybridization in the normal state. The superconducting phase at the first band $\varphi_1$ and that at the second band $\varphi_2$ characterize a two-band superconducting state. We consider a Josephson junction where an insulating barrier separates two such two-band superconductors. By applying the tunnel Hamiltonian description, the Josephson current is calculated in terms of the anomalous Green's function on either side of the junction. We find that the Josephson current consists of three components which depend on three types of phase differences across the junction: the phase difference at the first band $\delta\varphi_1$, the phase difference at the second band $\delta\varphi_2$, and the difference at the center-of-mass phase $\delta(\varphi_1+\varphi_2)/2$. A Cooper pairs generated by the band hybridization carries the last current component. In some cases, the current-phase relationship deviates from the sinusoidal function as a result of time-reversal symmetry breaking down.Comment: 6 page, 2 figure

Insulating Phases Induced by Crossing of Partially Filled Landau Levels in a Si Quantum Well

We study magnetotransport in a high mobility Si two-dimensional electron system by in situ tilting of the sample relative to the magnetic field. A pronounced dip in the longitudinal resistivity is observed during the Landau level crossing process for noninteger filling factors. Together with a Hall resistivity change which exhibits the particle-hole symmetry, this indicates that electrons or holes in the relevant Landau levels become localized at the coincidence where the pseudospin-unpolarized state is expected to be stable.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Well-width dependence of valley splitting in Si/SiGe quantum wells

The valley splitting in Si two-dimensional electron systems is studied using Si/SiGe single quantum wells (QWs) with different well widths. The energy gaps for 4 and 5.3 nm QWs, obtained from the temperature dependence of the longitudinal resistivity at the Landau level filling factor $\nu=1$, are much larger than those for 10 and 20 nm QWs. This is consistent with the well-width dependence of the bare valley splitting estimated from the comparison with the Zeeman splitting in the Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figure

Metallic Behavior of Cyclotron Relaxation Time in Two-Dimensional Systems

Cyclotron resonance of two-dimensional electrons is studied at low temperatures down to 0.4 K for a high-mobility Si/SiGe quantum well which exhibits a metallic temperature dependence of dc resistivity $\rho$. The relaxation time $\tau_{\rm CR}$ shows a negative temperature dependence, which is similar to that of the transport scattering time $\tau_t$ obtained from $\rho$. The ratio $\tau_{\rm CR}/\tau_t$ at 0.4 K increases as the electron density $N_s$ decreases, and exceeds unity when $N_s$ approaches the critical density for the metal-insulator transition.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure