Frustrated multiband superconductivity

We show that a clean multiband superconductor may display one or several phase transitions with increasing temperature from or to frustrated configurations of the relative phases of the superconducting order parameters. These transitions may occur when more than two bands are involved in the formation of the superconducting phase and when the number of repulsive interband interactions is odd. These transitions are signalled by slope changes in the temperature dependence of the superconducting gaps.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Magnetic impurities in the two-band s±s_\pm-wave superconductors

We investigate the effects of magnetic impurities in a superconducting state with $s_\pm$ pairing symmetry. Within a two-band model, we find that the intra-band magnetic scattering serves as a pair breaker while the inter-band magnetic scattering preserves pairing and hardly affects transition temperature in the Born limit. We also show that the same physics can persist beyond the weak scattering region. Our results coincide with recent experimental measurements in iron-based superconductors and thus provides an indirect evidence of the possible $s_\pm$ pairing symmetry in these materials.Comment: 5 pages,4 figure

Effect of Impurities with Internal Structure on Multiband Superconductors - Possible Enhancement of Transition Temperature -

We study inelastic (dynamical) impurity scattering effects in two-band superconductors with the same ($s_{++}$ wave) or different ($s_\pm$ wave) sign order parameters. We focus on the enhancement of the superconducting transition temperature $T_{\rm c}$ by magnetic interband scattering with the interchange of crystal-field singlet ground and multiplet excited states. Either the $s_{++}$-wave or $s_\pm$-wave state is favored by the impurity-mediated pairing, which depends on the magnetic and nonmagnetic scattering strengths derived from the hybridization of the impurity states with the conduction bands. The details are examined for the singlet-triplet configuration that is suggestive of Pr impurities in the skutterudite superconductor LaOs$_4$Sb$_{12}$.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, to appear in J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. Vol. 79, No. 9 (2010

Single Impurity Effects in Multiband Superconductors with Different Sign Order Parameters

A single impurity problem is investigated for multiband s-wave superconductors with different sign order parameters (+-s-wave superconductors) suggested in Fe-pnictide superconductors. Not only intraband but also interband scattering is considered at the impurity. The latter gives rise to impurity-induced local boundstates close to the impurity. We present an exact form of the energy of the local boundstates as a function of strength of the two types of impurity scattering. The essential role of the impurity is unchanged in finite number of impurities. The main conclusions for a single impurity problem help us understand effects of dense impurities in the +-s-wave superconductors. Local density of states around the single impurity is also investigated. We suggest impurity site nuclear magnetic resonance as a suitable experiment to probe the local boundstates that is peculiar to the +-s-wave state. We find that the +-s-wave model is mapped to a chiral dx2-y2+-idxy-wave, reflecting the unconventional nature of the sign reversing order parameter. For a quantum magnetic impurity, interband scattering destabilizes the Kondo singlet.Comment: 23 pages, 7 figures, to be published in J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. (2009) No.

Normal State Spin Dynamics of Five-band Model for Iron-pnictides

Normal state spin dynamics of the recently discovered iron-pnictide superconductors is discussed by calculating spin structure factor S(q, omega) in an itinerant five-band model within RPA approximation. Due to the characteristic Fermi surface structure of iron-pnictide, column like response is found at (pi, 0) in extended Brillouin zone in the undoped case, which is consistent with the recent neutron scattering experiment. This indicates that the localized spin model is not necessary to explain the spin dynamics of this system. Furthermore, we show that the temperature dependence of inelastic neutron scattering intensity can be well reproduced in the itinerant model. We also study NMR 1/T_1T in the same footing calculation and show that the itinerant model can capture the magnetic property of iron-pnictide superconductors.Comment: 4 page

Distinct transport behaviors of LaFe1-yCoyAsO1-xFx (x=0.11) between the superconducting and nonsuperconducting metallic y regions divided by y ~ 0.05

Electrical resistivities, Hall coefficients and thermoelectric powers have been measured for polycrystalline samples of LaFe1-yCoyAsO1-xFx (x=0.11) with various values of y. The results show that there exists clear distinction of these transport behaviors between the superconducting and nonsuperconducting metallic regions of y divided by the boundary value yc~0.05. We have found that the behaviors in both regions are very similar to those of high-Tc Cu oxides in the corresponding phases. If they reflect, as in the case of Cu oxides, effects of strong magnetic fluctuations, the energy scale of the fluctuations is considered to be smaller than that of the high Cu oxides by a factor of ~1/2. Arguments on the electronic nature and superconducting symmetry are presented on the basis of the observed small rate of the Tc suppression rate by the Co doping.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, submitted to J. Phys. Soc. Jp

Impurity-induced in-gap state and Tc in sign-reversing s-wave superconductors: analysis of iron oxypnictide superconductors

The sign-reversing fully gapped superconducting state, which is expected to be realized in oxypnictide superconductors, can be prominently affected by nonmagnetic impurities due to the interband scattering of Cooper pairs. We study this problem based on the isotropic two-band BCS model: In oxypnictide superconductors, the interband impurity scattering $I'$ is not equal to the intraband one $I$. In the Born scattering regime, the reduction in Tc is sizable and the impurity-induced density of states (DOS) is prominent if $I\sim I'$, due to the interband scattering. Although impurity-induced DOS can yield a power-law temperature dependence in $1/T_1$, a sizable suppression in Tc is inevitably accompanied. In the unitary scattering regime, in contrast, impurity effect is very small for both Tc and DOS except at $I=I'$. By comparing theory and experiments, we expect that the degree of anisotropy in the $s_\pm$-wave gap function strongly depends on compounds.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, to be published in New. J. Phy

Perturbation Theory of High-Tc Superconductivity in Iron Pnictides

The high-transition-temperature (high-Tc) superconductivity discovered recently in iron pnictides is analyzed within a perturbation theory. Specifically, the probable pairing symmetry, the doping dependence of the transition temperature and the pairing mechanism are studied by solving the Eliashberg equation for multi-band (2- and 5-band) Hubbard models with realistic electronic structures. The effective pairing interaction is expanded perturbatively in the on-site Coulomb integrals up to third order. Our perturbative weak-coupling approach shows that sufficiently large eigenvalues of the Eliashberg equation are obtained to explain the actual high transition temperatures by taking realistic on-site Coulomb integrals in the 5-band model. Thus, unconventional (non-phonon-mediated) superconductivity is highly likely to be realized. The superconducting order parameter does not change its sign on the Fermi surfaces, but it does change between the electron and hole Fermi surfaces. Consequently, the probable pairing symmetry is always "a nodeless extended s-wave symmetry (more specifically, an s_{+-}-wave symmetry)" over the whole parameter region that we investigated. It is suggested that the 2-band model is insufficient to explain the high values of Tc.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figure