320 research outputs found
Magnetic skyrmion lattices in heavy fermion superconductor UPt3
Topological analysis of nearly SO(3)_{spin} symmetric Ginzburg--Landau
theory, proposed for UPt by Machida et al, shows that there exists a new
class of solutions carrying two units of magnetic flux: the magnetic skyrmion.
These solutions do not have singular core like Abrikosov vortices and at low
magnetic fields they become lighter for strongly type II superconductors.
Magnetic skyrmions repel each other as at distances much larger then the
magnetic penetration depth , forming a relatively robust triangular
lattice. The magnetic induction near is found to increase as
. This behavior agrees well with experiments.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, 2 column format; v2:misprint in the title is
correcte
Superconductor-Ferromagnet Bi-Layers: a Comparison of s-Wave and d-Wave Order Parameters
We study superconductor-ferromagnet bi-layers, not only for s-wave but also
for d-wave superconductors. We observe oscillations of the critical temperature
when varying the thickness of the ferromagnetic layer for both s-wave and
d-wave superconductors. However, for a rotated d-wave order parameter the
critical temperature differs considerably from that for the unrotated case. In
addition we calculate the density of states for different thicknesses of the
ferromagnetic layer; the results reflect the oscillatory behaviour of the
superconducting correlations.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in J. Phys.: Condens.
Matte
Magnetic skyrmions and their lattices in triplet superconductors
Complete topological classification of solutions in SO(3) symmetric
Ginzburg-Landau free energy has been performed and a new class of solutions in
weak external magnetic field carrying two units of magnetic flux has been
identified. These solutions, magnetic skyrmions, do not have singular core like
Abrikosov vortices and at low magnetic field become lighter for strongly type
II superconductors. As a consequence, the lower critical magnetic field Hc1 is
reduced by a factor of log(kappa). Magnetic skyrmions repel each other as 1/r
at distances much larger then magnetic penetration depth forming relatively
robust triangular lattice. Magnetic induction near Hc1 increases gradually as
(H-Hc1)^2. This agrees very well with experiments on heavy fermion
superconductor UPt3. Newly discovered Ru based compounds Sr2RuO4 and
Sr2YRu(1-x)Cu(x)O6 are other possible candidates to possess skyrmion lattices.
Deviations from exact SO(3) symmetry are also studied.Comment: 23 pages, 10 eps figure
Symmetries of Pairing Correlations in Superconductor-Ferromagnet Nanostructures
Using selection rules imposed by the Pauli principle, we classify pairing
correlations according to their symmetry properties with respect to spin,
momentum, and energy. We observe that inhomogeneity always leads to mixing of
even- and odd-energy pairing components. We investigate the superconducting
pairing correlations present near interfaces between superconductors and
ferromagnets, with focus on clean systems consisting of singlet superconductors
and either weak or half-metallic ferromagnets. Spin-active scattering in the
interface region induces all of the possible symmetry components. In
particular, the long-range equal-spin pairing correlations have odd-frequency
s-wave and even-frequency p-wave components of comparable magnitudes. We also
analyze the Josephson current through a half-metal. We find analytic
expressions and an interesting universality in the temperature dependence of
the critical current in the tunneling limit.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures, added citations, corrected typo
Vortex Core Structure and Dynamics in Layered Superconductors
We investigate the equilibrium and nonequilibrium properties of the core
region of vortices in layered superconductors. We discuss the electronic
structure of singly and doubly quantized vortices for both s-wave and d-wave
pairing symmetry. We consider the intermediate clean regime, where the
vortex-core bound states are broadened into resonances with a width comparable
to or larger than the quantized energy level spacing, and calculate the
response of a vortex core to an {\em a.c.} electromagnetic field for vortices
that are pinned to a metallic defect. We concentrate on the case where the
vortex motion is nonstationary and can be treated by linear response theory.
The response of the order parameter, impurity self energy, induced fields and
currents are obtained by a self-consistent calculation of the distribution
functions and the excitation spectrum. We then obtain the dynamical
conductivity, spatially resolved in the region of the core, for external
frequencies in the range, 0.1\Delta < \hbar\omega \lsim 3\Delta. We also
calculate the dynamically induced charge distribution in the vicinity of the
core. This charge density is related to the nonequilibrium response of the
bound states and collective mode, and dominates the electromagnetic response of
the vortex core.Comment: Presented at the 2000 Workshop on ``Microscopic Structure and
Dynamics of Vortices in Unconventional Superconductors and Superfluids'',
held at the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems in
Dresden, Germany (28 pages with 15 figures). Alternate version with higher
resolution figures:
http://snowmass.phys.nwu.edu/~sauls/Eprints/Dresden2000.htm
Microtubules in Bacteria: Ancient Tubulins Build a Five-Protofilament Homolog of the Eukaryotic Cytoskeleton
Microtubules play crucial roles in cytokinesis, transport, and motility, and are therefore superb targets for anti-cancer drugs. All tubulins evolved from a common ancestor they share with the distantly related bacterial cell division protein FtsZ, but while eukaryotic tubulins evolved into highly conserved microtubule-forming heterodimers, bacterial FtsZ presumably continued to function as single homopolymeric protofilaments as it does today. Microtubules have not previously been found in bacteria, and we lack insight into their evolution from the tubulin/FtsZ ancestor. Using electron cryomicroscopy, here we show that the tubulin homologs BtubA and BtubB form microtubules in bacteria and suggest these be referred to as “bacterial microtubules” (bMTs). bMTs share important features with their eukaryotic counterparts, such as straight protofilaments and similar protofilament interactions. bMTs are composed of only five protofilaments, however, instead of the 13 typical in eukaryotes. These and other results suggest that rather than being derived from modern eukaryotic tubulin, BtubA and BtubB arose from early tubulin intermediates that formed small microtubules. Since we show that bacterial microtubules can be produced in abundance in vitro without chaperones, they should be useful tools for tubulin research and drug screening
Renormalization Group Approach to the Coulomb Pseudopotential for C_{60}
A numerical renormalization group technique recently developed by one of us
is used to analyse the Coulomb pseudopotential () in
for a variety of bare potentials. We find a large reduction in due to
intraball screening alone, leading to an interesting non-monotonic dependence
of on the bare interaction strength.
We find that is positive for physically reasonable bare parameters,
but small enough to make the electron-phonon coupling a viable mechanism for
superconductivity in alkali-doped fullerides. We end with some open problems.Comment: 12 pages, latex, 7 figures available from [email protected]
Sub-Dominant Pairing Channels in Unconventional Superconductors: Ginzburg-Landau Theory
A Ginzburg-Landau theory is developed for unconventional superconductors with
the three relevant singlet pairing channels. Various consequences of the
sub-dominant channels (i.e., s- and d_{xy}-channels) are examined in detail.
(1) In the case of a d_{x^2-y^2}+is-wave superconductor, The structure of a
single vortex above and below T_{DS} is four-fold and two-fold symmetric,
respectively. (2) In the case of a d_{x^2-y^2}+id_{xy}-wave superconductor,
there is also a second order zero-field phase transition from the pure
d_{x^2-y^2}-phase to the Time-reversal-symmetry-breaking
d_{x^2-y^2}+id_{xy}-wave phase at the temperature T_{DD'}. But the subdominant
phase can (not) be induced by vortices above T_{DD'}. Below the time-reversal-
symmetry-breaking transition, the sub-dominant phase in the mixed state is
nontrivial: it survives at low fields, but may disappear above a field
(increasing with decreasing temperature) presumably via a first-order
transition. (3)By including the strong coupling effects, a
time-reversal-symmetry -breaking coupling term between the d_{x^2-y^2}- and
d_{xy}-waves is found to have significant effects on the low temperature
behavior of d_{x^2-y^2}+id_{xy} superconductors. In a magnetic field, a
d_{x^2-y^2}+id_{xy} state is always established, but the field-dependence of
d_{xy}-amplitude above T_{DD'} is different from that below T_{DD'}. Above but
not very close to T_{DD'}, the induced minimum gap Delta_0 proportional to
B/(T-T_{DD'}).Comment: updated, 7 two-column pages with one embedded figure, one formula
corrected, to appear in Phys. Rev. B 6
Absolute spin-valve effect with superconducting proximity structures
We investigate spin dependent transport in hybrid
superconductor(S)--normal-metal(N)--ferromagnet(F) structures under conditions
of proximity effect. We demonstrate the feasibility of the absolute spin-valve
effect for a certain interval of voltages in a system consisting of two coupled
tri-layer structures. Our results are also valid for non-collinear magnetic
configurations of the ferromagnets.Comment: 1 TEX file, 2 Postscript files. Accepted for publication in Physical
Review Letter
Inhomogeneous magnetism induced in a superconductor at superconductor-ferromagnet interface
We study a magnetic proximity effect at superconductor (S) - ferromagnet (F)
interface. It is shown that due to an exchange of electrons between the F and S
metals ferromagnetic correlations extend into the superconductor, being
dependent on interface parameters. We show that ferromagnetic exchange field
pair breaking effect leads to a formation of subgap bands in the S layer local
density of states, that accommodate only one spin-polarized quasiparticles.
Equilibrium magnetization leakage into the S layer as function of SF interface
quality and a value of ferromagnetic interaction have also been calculated. We
show that a damped-oscillatory behavior versus distance from SF interface is a
distinguished feature of the exchange-induced magnetization of the S layer.Comment: 10 pages, 7 Postscript figure
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