5 research outputs found
Huge metastability in high-T_c superconductors induced by parallel magnetic field
We present a study of the temperature-magnetic field phase diagram of
homogeneous and inhomogeneous superconductivity in the case of a
quasi-two-dimensional superconductor with an extended saddle point in the
energy dispersion under a parallel magnetic field. At low temperature, a huge
metastability region appears, limited above by a steep superheating critical
field (H_sh) and below by a strongly reentrant supercooling field (H_sc). We
show that the Pauli limit (H_p) for the upper critical magnetic field is
strongly enhanced due to the presence of the Van Hove singularity in the
density of states. The formation of a non-uniform superconducting state is
predicted to be very unlikely.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures; to appear in Phys. Rev.
Density of states and magnetoconductance of disordered Au point contacts
We report the first low temperature magnetotransport measurements on
electrochemically fabricated atomic scale gold nanojunctions. As , the
junctions exhibit nonperturbatively large zero bias anomalies (ZBAs) in their
differential conductance. We consider several explanations and find that the
ZBAs are consistent with a reduced local density of states (LDOS) in the
disordered metal. We suggest that this is a result of Coulomb interactions in a
granular metal with moderate intergrain coupling. Magnetoconductance of atomic
scale junctions also differs significantly from that of less geometrically
constrained devices, and supports this explanation.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures. Accepted to PRB as Brief Repor
Influence of orbital pair breaking on paramagnetically limited states in clean superconductors
Paramagnetic pair breaking is believed to be of increasing importance in many
layered superconducting materials such as cuprates and organic compounds.
Recently, strong evidence for a phase transition to the
Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov(FFLO) state has been obtained for the first
time. We present a new theory of competing spin and orbital pair breaking in
clean superconducting films or layers. As a general result, we find that the
influence of orbital pair breaking on the paramagnetically limited phase
boundary is rather strong, and its neglect seldom justified. This is
particularly true for the FFLO state which can be destroyed by a very small
orbital contribution. We discuss the situation in YBa_2Cu_3O_7 which has two
coupled conducting Cu-O layers per unit cell. As a consequence, an intrinsic
orbital pair breaking component might exist even for applied field exactly
parallel to the layers.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures, submitted to PR