The symmetry of the superconductivity in Bechgaard salts is still unknown, though the triplet pairing has been established by Hc2 and NMR for (TMTSF)2PF6. The large upper critical field at T = 0K (Hc2 ~ 5 Tesla) both for H || a and H || b also indicates strongly the triplet pairing.
Here we start with a low energy effective Hamiltonian and study the temperature dependence of the corresponding Hc2(T)'s.
The present analysis suggests that one chiral f-wave superconductor should be the most likely candidate near the upper critical field.
The symmetry of the superconducting order parameter in Bechgaard salts is still unknown, though the triplet pairing is well stablished by NMR data and large upper critical field. Here we examine the upper critical field of a few candidate superconductors within the standard formalism. The present analysis suggests strongly chiral f-wave superconductor somewhat similar to the one in Sr_2RuO_4 is the most likely candidate.
We present a group theoretical analysis of the superconducting state of the Bechgaard salts, e.g., (TMTSF)_2PF_6 or (TMTSF)_2ClO_6. We show that there are eight symmetry distinct superconducting states. Of these only the (fully gapped, even frequency, p-wave, triplet) 'polar state' is consistent with the full range of the experiments on the Bechgaard salts. The gap of the polar state is d(k) (psi_uk,0,0), where psi_uk may be any odd parity function that is translationally invariant.
It is the saturation of the transition temperature Tc in the range of 24 K for known materials in the late sixties which triggered the search for additional materials offering new coupling mechanisms leading in turn to higher Tc's. As a result of this stimulation, superconductivity in organic matter was discovered in tetramethyl-tetraselenafulvalene-hexafluorophosphate, (TMTSF)2PF6, in 1979, in the laboratory founded at Orsay by Professor Friedel and his colleagues in 1962. Although this conductor is a prototype example for low-dimensional physics, we mostly focus in this article on the superc…
We propose a new approach for studying spin density waves (SDW) in the Bechgaard salt (TMTSF)2ClO4 where lattice is dimerized in transverse direction due to anion ordering. The SDW response is calculated in the matrix formulation that rigorously treats the hybridization of inter-band and intra-band SDW correlations. Since the dimerization gap is large, of the order of transverse bandwidth, we also develop an exact treatment of magnetic breakdown in the external magnetic field. The obtained results agree with the experimental data on the fast magneto-resistance oscillations. Experimentally foun…
The density-matrix renormalization group method is used to study the ground state of the two-chain zigzag-bond Hubbard model at quarter filling. We show that, with a proper choice of the signs of hopping integrals, the ring exchange mechanism yields ferromagnetic spin correlations between interchain neighboring sites, and produces the attractive interaction between electrons as well as the long-range pair correlations in the spin-triplet channel, thereby leading the system to triplet superconductivity. We argue that this novel mechanism may have possible relevance to observed superconductivity…
The quasi-1D organic Bechgaard salt (TMTSF)$_2$PF$_6$ displays spin-density-wave (SDW) order and superconductivity in close proximity in the temperature-pressure phase diagram. We have measured its normal-state electrical resistivity $ρ_a(T)$ as a function of temperature and pressure, in the $T \to 0$ limit. At the critical pressure where SDW order disappears, $ρ_a(T) \propto T$ down to the lowest measured temperature (0.1 K). With increasing pressure, $ρ_a(T)$ acquires a curvature that is well described by $ρ_a(T) = ρ_0 + AT + BT^2$, where the strength of the linear term, measured by the $A$ …
Recent experiments indicate that the Bechgaard salts (TMTSF)$_2$ ClO$_4$ and (TMTSF)$_2$ PF$_6$ may be unconventional triplet superconductors. The quasiparticle density of states and the uniform spin susceptibility tensor are computed at low temperatures for order parameter symmetries, as an attempt to narrow the number of possibilities based on experimental evidence.
We show that the Josephson effect between triplet superconductors is sensitive to the relative orientation of the d-vectors across the junction. In addition, we point out that the temperature and angular dependence of the Josephson effect can help distinguish between different order parameter symmetries. We discuss coherent and incoherent tunneling processes, and the role of surface bound states within the framework of non-local lattice Bogoliubov-deGennes equations.
We investigate the possible superconducting pairing symmetries which would account for the latest experimental results on the Bechgaard salts. Using a renormalization group (R.G) technique we calculate the couplings of the singlet and triplet interactions in the quasi 1D Hamiltonian. In the presence of interchain interactions, the singlet and triplet couplings are of the same order of magnitude. The renormalized couplings are then used in an RPA calculation to evaluate the critical fields of superconductivity for the two dominant order parameter symmetries in the R.G flow, i.e, the dx2-y2 and …
$(TMTSF)_2ClO_4$ is a quasi-one dimensional organic conductor and superconductor with $T_c=1.4$K, and one of at least two Bechgaard salts observed to have upper critical fields far exceeding the paramagnetic limit. Nevertheless, the $^{77}$Se NMR Knight shift at low fields reveals a decrease in spin susceptibility $χ_s$ consistent with singlet spin pairing. The field dependence of the spin-lattice relaxation rate at 100mK exhibits a sharp crossover (or phase transition) at a field $H_s\sim15$kOe, to a regime where $χ_s$ is close to the normal state value, even though \hc2 $\gg H_s$.
We study the transition temperature Tc(H) of a quasi-one-dimensional (Q1D) superconductivity which is derived from the quantum effect of an electron motion in a strong magnetic field. We calculate Tc(H) of both isotropic and anisotropic superconductivity by taking account of the optimal momentum of the Cooper pairs and the effect of higher harmonic terms along second conducting axis in the tight-binding model. We find that, although Tc(H) of the spin-singlet superconductivity is suppressed strongly by the Zeeman effect, the suppression of Tc(H) is not very severe if we take the optimal pair-mo…
The interdependence of antiferromagnetism and superconductivity in the Bechgaard salts series of organic conductors is examined in the light of the anomalous temperature dependence of the nuclear spin-lattice relaxation rate. We apply the renormalization group approach to the electron gas model to show that the crossover from antiferromagnetism to superconductivity along with the anomalous nuclear relaxation rate of the Bechgaard salts can be well described within a unified microscopic framework. For sizable nesting deviations of the Fermi surface, scaling theory reveals how pairing correlatio…
We report the temperature dependence of the upper critical magnetic field in the quasi-onedimensional molecular organic superconductor (DMET)2I3, for magnetic field applied along the intrachain, interchain, and interplane directions. The upper critical field tends to saturation at low temperature for field in all directions and does not exceed the Pauli paramagnetic limit. Superconductivity in (DMET)2I3 thus appears to be conventional spin singlet, in contrast to the status of the isostructural Bechgaard salts. We also discuss a magnetic field-induced dimensional crossover effect in the normal…
Motivated by recent interest in spin triplet superconductors, we investigate the vortex lattice structures for this class of unconventional superconductors. We discuss how the order parameter symmetry can give rise to U(1)$\times$U(1) symmetry in same sense as in spinor condensates, making half-quantum vortices (HQV) topologically stable. We then calculate the vortex lattice structure of HQV's, with particular attention on the roles of the crystalline lattice, the Zeeman coupling, and Meissner screening, all absent in spinor condensates. Finally, we consider how spin-orbit coupling leads to a …
Using a renormalization group approach, we determine the phase diagram of an extended quasi-one-dimensional electron gas model that includes interchain hopping, nesting deviations and both intrachain and interchain repulsive interactions. We find a close proximity of spin-density- and charge-density-wave phases, singlet d-wave and triplet f-wave superconducting phases. There is a striking correspondence between our results and recent puzzling experimental findings in the Bechgaard salts, including the coexistence of spin-density-wave and charge-density-wave phases and the possibility of a trip…
Superconductivity in the Bechgaard salts series of quasi-one-dimensional organic conductors occurs on the verge of spin-density-wave ordering when hydrostatic pressure is applied. The sequence of instabilities is intimately connected to normal state anomalies in various quantities like the temperature dependence of electrical transport and nuclear spin-lattice relaxation rate. We discuss how such a connection takes its origin in the interference between the different pairing mechanisms responsible for antiferromagnetism and superconductivity, a duo that can be comprehended in terms of a weak c…
Upper critical field, H_c2, in quasi-1D superconductors is investigated by the weak coupling renormalization group technique. It is shown that H_c2 greatly exceeds not only the Pauli limit, but also the conventional paramagnetic limit of the Flude-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) state. This increase is mainly due to quasi-1D fluctuations effect as triggered by interference between unconventional superconductivity and density-wave instabilities. Our results give a novel viewpoint on the large H_c2 observed in TMTSF-salts in terms of a d-wave FFLO state that is predicted to be verified by the …
Iron selenide (FeSe) - the structurally simplest iron-based superconductor, has attracted tremendous interest in the past years. While the transition temperature (Tc) of bulk FeSe is $\sim$ 8 K, it can be significantly enhanced to 40 - 50 K by various ways of electron doping. However, the underlying physics for such great enhancement of Tc and so the Cooper pairing mechanism still remain puzzles. Here, we report a systematic study of the superconducting- and normal-state properties of FeSe films via ionic liquid gating. With fine tuning, Tc evolves continuously from below 10 K to above 40 K; i…
We study the influence of the band structure on the symmetry and superconducting transition temperature in the (solvable) weak-coupling limit of the repulsive Hubbard model. Among other results we find: 1) As a function of increasing nematicity, starting from the square lattice (zero nematicity) limit where nodal d-wave state is strongly preferred, there is a smooth evolution to the quasi-1D limit, where a striking near-degeneracy is found between a p-wave- and a d-wave-type paired states with accidental nodes on the quasi-one-dimensional Fermi surfaces---a situation which may be relevant to t…
We report on the result of quantum Monte Carlo simulation of quasi-one-dimensional electron systems at 1/4-filling, considering organic superconductors such as TMTSF- and TMTTF-salts. We focus on the effect of dimensionality (interchain coupling) on superconducting fluctuation. First we consider Hubbard model which includes only on-site repulsion U. We find that the increase of interchain coupling enhances superconducting susceptibility, although it deforms the nested Fermi surface and suppresses the spin susceptibility. Next we consider an extended Hubbard model which includes nearest-neighbo…
