Edge States and Broken Symmetry Phases of Laterally Confined 3^3He Films

Broken symmetries in topological condensed matter systems have implications for the spectrum of Fermionic excitations confined on surfaces or topological defects. The Fermionic spectrum of confined (quasi-2D) $^3$He-A consists of branches of chiral edge states. The negative energy states are related to the ground-state angular momentum, $L_z = (N/2) \hbar$, for $N/2$ Cooper pairs. The power law suppression of the angular momentum, $L_z(T) \simeq (N/2)\,\hbar\,[1 - \frac{2}{3}(\pi T/\Delta)^2 ]$ for $0 \le T \ll T_c$, in the fully gapped 2D chiral A-phase reflects the thermal excitation of the chiral edge Fermions. We discuss the effects of wave function overlap, and hybridization between edge states confined near opposing surfaces on the edge currents, ground-state angular momentum and ground-state order parameter. Under strong lateral confinement, the chiral A phase undergoes a sequence of phase transitions, first to a pair density wave (PDW) phase with broken translational symmetry at $D_{c2} \approx 16 \xi_0$. The PDW phase is described by a periodic array of chiral domains with alternating chirality, separated by domain walls. The period of PDW phase diverges as the confinement length $D\rightarrow D_{c_2}$. The PDW phase breaks time-reversal symmetry, translation invariance, but is invariant under the combination of time-reversal and translation by a one-half period of the PDW. The mass current distribution of the PDW phase reflects this combined symmetry, and orignates from the spectra of edge Fermions and the chiral branches bound to the domain walls. Under sufficiently strong confinement a second-order transition occurs to the non-chiral "polar phase" at $D_{c1} \approx 9\xi_0$, in which a single p-wave orbital state of Cooper pairs is aligned along the channel.Comment: 16 pages, 16 figure

Nonequilibrium spin-transfer torque in SFNFS junctions

We report theoretical results for the nonequilibrium spin current and spin-transfer torque in voltage-biased SFNFS Josephson structures. The subharmonic gap structures and high voltage asymptotic behaviors of the dc and ac components of the spin current are analyzed and related to the spin-dependent inelastic scattering of quasiparticles at both F layers.Comment: minor changes, published versio

The Effect of Inhomogeneous Surface Disorder on the Superheating Field of Superconducting RF Cavities

Recent advances in surface treatments of Niobium superconducting radio frequency (SRF) cavities have led to substantially increased Q-factors and maximum surface field. This poses theoretical challenges to identify the mechanisms responsible for such performance enhancements. We report theoretical results for the effects of inhomogeneous surface disorder on the superheating field --- the surface magnetic field above which the Meissner state is globally unstable. We find that inhomogeneous disorder, such as that introduced by infusion of Nitrogen into the surface layers of Niobium SRF cavities, can increase the superheating field above the maximum for superconductors in the clean limit or with homogeneously distributed disorder. Homogeneous disorder increases the penetration of screening current, but also suppresses the maximum supercurrent. Inhomogeneous disorder in the form of an impurity diffusion layer biases this trade-off by increasing the penetration of the screening currents into cleaner regions with larger critical currents, thus limiting the suppression of the screening current to a thin dirty region close to the surface. Our results suggest that the impurity diffusion layers play a role in enhancing the maximum accelerating gradient of Nitrogen treated Niobium SRF cavities.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure