We predict that junctions between an antiferromagnetic insulator and a superconductor provide a robust platform to create a one-dimensional topological superconducting state. Its emergence does not require the presence of intrinsic spin-orbit coupling nor non-collinear magnetism, but arises solely from repulsive electronic interactions on interfacial solitonic states. We demonstrate that a topological superconducting state is generated by repulsive interactions at arbitrarily small coupling strength, and that the size of the topological gap rapidly saturates to the one of the parent trivial superconductor. Our results put forward antiferromagnetic insulators as a new platform for interaction-driven topological superconductivity.
Quantum spin Hall-superconductor hybrids are promising sources of topological superconductivity and Majorana modes, particularly given recent progress on HgTe and InAs/GaSb. We propose a new method of revealing topological superconductivity in extended quantum spin Hall Josephson junctions supporting `fractional Josephson currents'. Specifically, we show that as one threads magnetic flux between the superconductors, the critical current traces an interference pattern featuring sharp fingerprints of topological superconductivity---even when noise spoils parity conservation.
Carrier injection performed in oxygen-deficient YBa2Cu3O7(YBCO) hetero-structure junctions exhibited tunable resistance that was entirely different with behaviors of semiconductor devices. Tunable superconductivity in YBCO junctions, increasing over 20 K in transition temperature, has achieved by using electric processes. To our knowledge, this is the first observation that intrinsic property of high TC superconductors superconductivity can be adjusted as tunable functional parameters of devices. The fantastic phenomenon caused by carrier injection was discussed based on a proposed charge carr…
We devise a new proximity junction configuration where an s-wave superconductivity and the superconductivity of Sr2RuO4 interfere with each other. We reproducibly observe in such a Pb/Ru/Sr2RuO4 junction with a single Pb electrode that the critical current Ic drops sharply just below the bulk Tc of Sr2RuO4 and furthermore increases again below a certain temperature below Tc. In order to explain this extraordinary temperature dependence of Ic, we propose a competition effect involving topologically distinct superconducting phases around Ru inclusions. Thus, such a device may be called a "topolo…
We demonstrate that antiferromagnet-superconductor (AF-S) junctions show qualitatively different transport properties than normal metal-superconductor (N--S) and ferromagnet-superconductor (F-S) junctions. We attribute these transport features to presence of two new scattering processes in AF--S junctions, i.e., specular reflection of holes and retroreflection of electrons. Using the Blonder-Tinkham-Klapwijk formalism, we find that the electrical and thermal conductance depend nontrivially on antiferromagnetic exchange strength. Furthermore, we show that the interplay between the Néel vector d…
To clarify superconductivity in EuFe2As2 hidden by antiferromagnetism of Eu2+, we investigated a Ca-substituted sample, Eu0.5Ca0.5Fe2As2, under high pressure. For ambient pressure, the sample exhibits a spin-density-wave (SDW) transition at TSDW = 191 K and antiferromagnetic order at TN = 4 K, but no evidence of superconductivity down to 2 K. The Ca-substitution certainly weakens the antiferromagnetism. With increasing pressure, TSDW shifts to lower temperature and becomes more unclear. Above 1.27 GPa, pressure-induced superconductivity with zero resistivity is observed at around Tc = 20 K. At…
On the basis of the periodic Anderson model the microscopic Ginzburg-Landau equations for heavy-fermion superconductors in the coexistence phase of superconductivity and antiferromagnetism have been derived. The obtained expressions are valid in the vicinity of quantum critical point of heavy-fermion superconductors when the onset temperatures of antiferromagnetism and superconductivity are sufficiently close to each other. It is shown that the formation of antiferromagnetic ordering causes a decrease of the critical temperature of superconducting transition and order parameter in the phase of…
We present magnetotransport evidence for antiferromagnetism in films of the electron-doped cuprates Pr$_{2-x}$Ce$_x$CuO$_4$. Our results show clear signature of static antiferromagnetism up to optimal doping x=0.15, with a quantum phase transition close to x=0.16, and a coexistence of static antiferromagnetism and superconductivity for 0.12$\le$x$\le$0.15.
We show that the dc Josephson current through superconductor-antiferromagnet-superconductor (S/AF/S) junctions manifests a remarkable atomic scale dependence on the interlayer thickness. At low temperatures the junction is either a 0- or pi-junction depending on whether the AF interlayer consists of an even or odd number of atomic layers. This is associated with different symmetries of the AF interlayers in the two cases. In the junction with odd AF interlayers an additional pi-0 transition can take place as a function of temperature. This originates from the interplay of spin-split Andreev bo…
Planar Josephson junctions provide a versatile platform, alternative to the nanowire-based geometry, for the generation of the Majorana bound states, due to the additional phase tunability of the topological superconductivity. The proximity induction of chiral magnetism and superconductivity in a two-dimensional electron gas showed remarkable promises to manipulate topological superconductivity. Here, we consider a Josephson junction involving a skyrmion crystal and show that the chiral magnetism of the skyrmions can create and control the Majorana bound states without the requirement of an in…
We calculate the dc supercurrent through a Josephson tunnel junction consisting of an antiferromagnetic (AF) interlayer sandwiched between two d-wave superconductors (d). Such d/AF/d junctions exhibit a rich dependence of the Josephson current on the interlayer parameters, including the possibility of 0-pi transitions with varying temperature or interlayer thickness. Furthermore, we study d/I/d junctions when the dSC leads include subdominant magnetic correlations. In this case induced magnetism near the interface can strongly diminish the critical current for 110 oriented junctions whereas no…
Josephson junctions and junction arrays are well studied devices in superconductivity. With external magnetic fields one can modulate the phase in a long junction and create traveling, solitonic waves of magnetic flux, called fluxons. Today, it is also possible to device two different types of junctions: depending on the sign of the critical current density, they are called 0- or pi-junction. In turn, a 0-pi junction is formed by joining two of such junctions. As a result, one obtains a pinned Josephson vortex of fractional magnetic flux, at the 0-pi boundary. Here, we analyze this arrangement…
Experiments show evidence for stripe formation in the underdoped cuprates. Here we discuss recent numerical calculations on the t-J model which tell us about the mechanism responsible for stripe formation and the relationship between stripes and superconductivity.
Theory of reentrant superconductivity in Corbino Josephson junctions
Cornell University（康奈尔大学）；Weizmann Institute of Science（魏茨曼科学研究所）；Harvard University（哈佛大学）；Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU)（成均馆大学）；Institute for Basic Science (IBS)（基础科学研究院）；John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University（哈佛大学约翰·A·保尔森工程与应用科学学院）；Columbia University（哥伦比亚大学）
Superconductivity in the iron pnictides develops near antiferromagnetism, and the antiferromagnetic (AF) phase appears to overlap with the superconducting phase in some materials such as BaFe2-xTxAs2 (where T = Co or Ni). Here we use neutron scattering to demonstrate that genuine long-range AF order and superconductivity do not coexist in BaFe2-xNixAs2 near optimal superconductivity. In addition, we find a first-order-like AF to superconductivity phase transition with no evidence for a magnetic quantum critical point. Instead, the data reveal that incommensurate short-range AF order coexists a…
We review the current understanding of superconductivity in the quasi-one-dimensional organic conductors of the Bechgaard and Fabre salt families. We discuss the interplay between superconductivity, antiferromagnetism, and charge-density-wave fluctuations. The connection to recent experimental observations supporting unconventional pairing and the possibility of a triplet-spin order parameter for the superconducting phase is also presented.
A possibility of the realization of the p-wave spin-singlet superconductivity ($p$SS), whose gap function is odd both in momentum and in frequency, is investigated by solving the gap equation with the phenomenological interaction mediated by the antiferromagnetic spin fluctuation. The $p$SS is realized prevailing over the d-wave singlet superconductivity ($d$SS) in the vicinity of antiferromagnetic quantum critical pint (QCP) both on the paramagnetic and on the antiferromagnetic sides. Off the QCP in the paramagnetic phase, however, the $d$SS with line-nodes is realized as \textit{conventional…
We have measured a long-range supercurrent in Josephson junctions containing Co (a strong ferromagnetic material) when we insert thin layers of either PdNi or CuNi weakly-ferromagnetic alloys between the Co and the two superconducting Nb electrodes. The critical current in such junctions hardly decays for Co thicknesses in the range of 12-28 nm, whereas it decays very steeply in similar junctions without the alloy layers. The long-range supercurrent is controllable by the thickness of the alloy layer, reaching a maximum for a thickness of a few nm. These experimental observations provide stron…
Superconductor-insulator-superconductor tunnel junctions have been fabricated on MgB2 that display Josephson and quasiparticle currents. These junctions exhibit a gap magnitude, Delta~2.5 meV, that is considerably smaller than the BCS value, but which clearly and reproducibly closes near the bulk Tc. In conjunction with fits of the conductance spectra, these results are interpreted as direct evidence of two-band superconductivity.
We present an SU(4) model of high-$T_c$ superconductivity. One dynamical symmetry of this model corresponds to the previously proposed SO(5) model for unification of superconductivity and antiferromagnetism, but there are two additional dynamical symmetries: SO(4), associated with antiferromagnetic order and SU(2), associated with a D-wave pairing condensate. These provide a 3-phase microscopic model of high-$T_c$ superconductivity and permit a clear understanding of the role played by the SO(5) symmetry.
Recently, much research has been dedicated to understanding topological superconductivity and Majorana zero modes induced by a magnetic field in hybrid proximity structures. This paper proposes a realization of topological superconductivity in a short Josephson junction at an edge of a 2D topological insulator subject to a perpendicular magnetic field. The magnetic field effect is entirely orbital, coming from a gradient of the order parameter phase at the edge, which results in a soliton defect at the junction with a pair of gapless Andreev bound states. The latter are reducible to Majorana z…
Transport measurements in ramp-type junctions of $YBa_2Cu_3O_y-SrRuO_3-YBa_2Cu_3O_y$ with $T_c$ values of either 80-90 K or 60-70 K are reported. In both type of junctions but without a barrier ("shorts"), the supercurrent densities at 4.2 K reached 7.5 and 3.5 MA/cm$^2$, respectively, indicating the high quality of the fabrication process. Plots of the critical current versus thickness of the ferromagnetic barrier at 4.2 K show exponential decays with decay lengths of 1.1 nm for the 90 K phase and 1.4 nm for the 60 K phase, which are much shorter than the relevant coherence lengths $ξ_F\sim 5…
The new superconductivity theory that attributes the $U(1)$ superconductivity phase to a Berry phase arising from many-body wave functions is applied to the circuit quantization for superconducting qubits. The phase-charge duality required for the occurrence of superconductivity in the standard theory becomes irrelevant in the new theory, and the absence of a dissipative quantum phase transition in Josephson junctions is explained. It is shown that a charge-decaying term leads to the compact phase description, and the appearance of Shapiro steps is explained without introducing normal current.
Following the direct observation of abrupt changes in the superconducting ground state in doped low dimensional antiferromagnets, we have identified a phase transition where superconductivity is optimal. The experiments indicate the presence of a putative quantum critical point associated with the emergence of a glassy state. This mechanism is argued to be an intrinsic property and as such largely independent of material quality and the level of disorder.
We show that, at weak to intermediate coupling, antiferromagnetic fluctuations enhance d-wave pairing correlations until, as one moves closer to half-filling, the antiferromagnetically-induced pseudogap begins to suppress the tendency to superconductivity. The accuracy of our approach is gauged by detailed comparisons with Quantum Monte Carlo simulations. The negative pressure dependence of Tc and the existence of photoemission hot spots in electron-doped cuprate superconductors find their natural explanation within this approach.
We analyze the possible existence of a superconducting state in a background with long-range antiferromagnetism. We consider a generalized Hubbard model with nearest-neighbor correlated hopping in a square lattice. Near half filling, the model exhibits a d-wave-Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) solution in the paramagnetic state. The superconducting solution would be enhanced by the antiferromagnetic background if the contribution of triplet pairs with d-wave symmetry and total momentum (pi, pi) could be neglected. However, we find that due to their contribution, the coexistence of superconducti…
For Josephson junctions based on s-wave superconductors, time-reversal symmetry is known to allow for powerful relations between the normal-state junction properties, the excitation spectrum, and the Josephson current. Here we provide analogous relations for Josephson junctions involving one-dimensional time-reversal-invariant topological superconductors supporting Majorana-Kramers pairs, considering both topological-topological and s-wave-topological junctions. Working in the regime where the junction is much shorter than the superconducting coherence length, we obtain a number of analytical …
We study superconductivity on the surface of a topological insulator, mediated by magnetic fluctuations in an adjacent ferromagnetic or antiferromagnetic insulator. Superconductivity can arise from effective interactions between helical fermions induced by interfacial fermion-magnon interactions. For both ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic insulators, these fermion-fermion interactions have the correct structure to facilitate pairing between particles located on the same side of the Fermi surface, also known as Amperean pairing. In antiferromagnets, the strength of the induced interactions ca…
We propose a class of wave functions that provide a unified description of antiferromagnetism and d-wave superconductivity in (doped) Mott insulators. The wave function has a Jastrow form and prohibits double occupancies. In the absence of holes, the wave function describes antiferromagnetism accurately. Off diagonal long range order develops at finite doping and the superconducting order parameter has d-wave symmetry. We also show how nodal quasiparticles and neutral spin excitations can be constructed from this wave function.
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…
We present a novel phase diagram for the antiferromagnetism and superconductivity in Ce$_2$RhIn$_8$ probed by In-NQR studies under pressure ($P$). The quasi-2D character of antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations in the paramagnetic state at $P$ = 0 evolves into a 3D character because of the suppression of antiferromagnetic order for $P > P_{\rm QCP}\sim$ 1.36 GPa (QCP: antiferromagnetic quantum critical point). Nuclear-spin-lattice-relaxation rate $1/T_1$ measurements revealed that the superconducting order occurs in the $P$ range 1.36 -- 1.84 GPa, with maximum $T_c\sim$ 0.9 K around $P_{\rm QCP}…
We investigate the interplay between lattice-symmetry breaking and superconducting order in a two-dimensional model of doped antiferromagnets, with long-range Coulomb interactions and Sp(2N) spin symmetry, in the large-N limit. Our results motivate the outline of a global phase diagram for the cuprate superconductors. We describe the quantum transitions between the phases, the evolution of their fermion excitation spectrum, and the experimental implications.
We show that the critical behavior of quantum systems undergoing a percolation transition is dramatically affected by their topological Berry phase $2πρ$. For irrational $ρ$, we demonstrate that the low-energy excitations of diluted Josephson-junctions arrays, quantum antiferromagnets, and interacting bosons are spinless fermions with fractal spectrum. As a result, critical properties not captured by the usual Ginzburg-Landau-Wilson description of phase transitions emerge, such as complex critical exponents, log-periodic oscillations and dynamically broken scale-invariance.
Superconductivity and magnetism are generally incompatible because of the opposing requirement on electron spin alignment. When combined, they produce a multitude of fascinating phenomena, including unconventional superconductivity and topological superconductivity. The emergence of two-dimensional (2D)layered superconducting and magnetic materials that can form nanoscale junctions with atomically sharp interfaces presents an ideal laboratory to explore new phenomena from coexisting superconductivity and magnetic ordering. Here we report tunneling spectroscopy under an in-plane magnetic field …
We investigate the impact of s-wave spin-singlet pairing on antiferromagnetic semimetals with Dirac points or nodal loops at the Fermi level. The electron pairing is generally shown to convert the semimetal into a tunable nodal superconductor. The changeover from fully gapped to gapless phases is dictated by symmetry properties of the antiferromagnetic-superconducting state that set the occurrence of a large variety of electronic topological transitions. We provide a general criterion for predicting a series of transitions between nodal and fully gapped superconducting phases. Different types …
Understanding the coexistence, competition and/or cooperation between superconductivity and charge density waves (CDWs) in the transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) is an elusive goal which, when realized, promises to reveal fundamental information on this important class of materials. Here, we use four-terminal current-voltage measurements to study the Van der Waals interface between freshly exfoliated flakes of the high-$T_{c}$ superconductor, Bi-2212, and the CDW-dominated TMD layered material, 1T-TaS$_{2}$. For highly transparent barriers, there is a pronounced Andreev reflection feature…
Within the framework of the QED3 theory of cuprates it is argued that bulk antiferromagnetic (AF) order can coexist with d-wave superconductivity in the underdoped region, in agreement with recent experiments. The AF order arises from the phase fluctuating d-wave superconductor via the mechanism of spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking, provided that fluctuations are sufficiently strong. The phase diagram for this coexistence is mapped out by means of analytical and numerical solutions of the underlying Dyson-Schwinger equation in the large N limit.
We argue the emergence of nodal excitations due to the coupling with static antiferromagnetic order in fully-gapped superconducting states in both cases with and without inversion symmetry. This line node structure is not accompanied with the sign change of the superconducting gap, in contrast to usual unconventional Cooper pairs with higher angular momenta. In the case without inversion symmetry, the stability of the nodal excitations crucially depends on the direction of the antiferromagnetic staggered magnetic moment. A possible realization of this phenomenon in CePt$_3$Si is discussed.
We theoretically investigate the crystalline anisotropy of topological phase transitions in phase-controlled planar Josephson junctions (JJs) subject to spin-orbit coupling and in-plane magnetic fields. It is shown how topological superconductivity (TS) is affected by the interplay between the magnetic field and the orientation of the junction with respect to its crystallographic axes. This interplay can be used to electrically tune between different symmetry classes in a controlled fashion and thereby optimize the stability and localization of Majorana bound states in planar Josephson junctio…
The influence of antiferromagnetic order on the superconductivity in the non-centrosymmetric heavy fermion compound CePt$_3$Si and related materials is discussed. Based on our RPA analysis for the extended Hubbard model two phases could be stabilized by a spin fluctuation induced pairing, with either dominantly p-wave or d-wave symmetry. The antiferromagnetic order plays an essential role for the low-energy physics, in particular, for the appearance of line nodes in the gap and the enhancement of spin susceptibility below $T_{\rm c}$. Various properties and possible phase diagrams under pressu…
We investigate the effects of magnetic and crystalline anisotropies on the topological superconducting state of planar Josephson junctions (JJs). In junctions where only Rashba spin-orbit coupling (SOC) is present, the topological phase diagram is insensitive to the supercurrent direction, but exhibits a strong dependence on the magnetic field orientation. However, when both Rashba and Dresselhaus SOCs coexist, the topological phase diagram strongly depends on both the magnetic field and junction crystallographic orientations. We examine the impact of the magnetic and crystalline anisotropy on…
Elastic neutron diffraction measurements were performed on the quasi-two dimensional heavy fermion system CeRh1-xCoxIn5, ranging from an incommensurate antiferromagnet for low x to an unconventional superconductor on the Co-rich end of the phase diagram. We found that the superconductivity competes with the incommensurate antiferromagnetic (AFM) order characterized by qI=(1/2, 1/2, delta) with delta=0.298, while it coexists with the commensurate AFM order with qc=(1/2, 1/2, 1/2). This is in sharp contrast to the CeRh1-xIrxIn5 system, where both the commensurate and incommensurate magnetic orde…
We investigate the competition between antiferromagnetism and triplet superconductivity in quasi one-dimensional electron systems. We show that the two order parameters can be unified using a SO(4) symmetry and demonstrate the existence of such symmetry in one dimensional Luttinger liquids of interacting electrons. We argue that approximate SO(4) symmetry remains valid even when interchain hopping is strong enough to turn the system into a strongly anisotropic Fermi liquid. For unitary triplet superconductors SO(4) symmetry requires a first order transition between antiferromagnetic and superc…
In the generic phase diagram of heavy fermion systems, tuning an external parameter such as hydrostatic or chemical pressure modifies the superconducting transition temperature. The superconducting phase forms a dome in the temperature-tuning parameter phase diagram, which is associated with a maximum of the superconducting pairing interaction. Proximity to antiferromagnetism suggests a relation between the disappearance of antiferromagnetic order and superconductivity. We combine muon spin rotation, neutron scattering, and x-ray absorption spectroscopy techniques to gain access to the magneti…
We investigate the ground-state phase diagram of the two-dimensional Hubbard model based on the optimization variational Monte Carlo method. We use a wave function that is an off-diagonal type given as $ψ=\exp(-λK)P_Gψ_0$, where $ψ_0$ is a one-particle state, $P_G$ is the Gutzwiller operator, $K$ is the kinetic operator, and $λ$ is a variational parameter. The many-body effect plays an important role as an origin of spin correlation and superconductivity in correlated electron systems. We examine the competition between the antiferromagnetic state and superconducting state by varying the Coulo…
Two-dimensional topological superconductivity has attracted great interest due to the emergence of Majorana modes bound to vortices and propagating along edges. However, due to its rare appearance in natural compounds, experimental realizations rely on a delicate artificial engineering involving materials with helical states, magnetic fields and conventional superconductors. Here we introduce an alternative path using a class of three-dimensional antiferromagnet to engineer a two- dimensional topological superconductor. Our proposal exploits the appearance of solitonic states at the interface …
Topological superconductivity in one dimension requires time-reversal symmetry breaking, but at the same time it is hindered by external magnetic fields. We offer a general prescription for inducing topological superconductivity in planar superconductor-normal-superconductor-normal-superconductor (SNSNS) Josephson junctions without applying any magnetic fields on the junctions. Our platform relies on two key ingredients: the three parallel superconductors form two SNS junctions with phase winding, and the Fermi velocities for the two spin branches transverse to the junction must be different f…
Motivated by recent experimental study of antiferromagnetic property of honeycomb compound In$_{3}$Cu$_{2}$VO$_{9}$ [Yan \textit{et al.}, PRB \textbf{85}, 085102 (2012)], we explore possible superconductivity and its coexistence with antiferromagnetism. We use the t-t$^\prime$-J model on the honeycomb lattice as our starting point and employ the slave-boson mean-field theory. In the antiferromagnetic normal state, the characteristic doping evolution of Fermi surface shows that only one effective singe band is active, which suggests that the potential pairing symmetry is the time-reversal symme…
We derive an effective Hamiltonian for spin polarons forming in weakly doped antiferromagnets and demonstrate that the system becomes superconducting at finite doping. We argue that the driving mechanism which gives rise to superconductivity is lowering of the kinetic energy by formation of mobile antiferromagnetic spin bipolarons. That source of attraction between holes is by definition effective if the antiferromagnetic correlation length is longer than the radius of forming polarons. Notwithstanding that the attraction is strongest in the undoped system with long range order, the supercondu…
Single crystals of the Sr$_2$RuO$_4$-Ru eutectic system are known to exhibit enhanced superconductivity at 3~K, in addition to the bulk superconductivity of Sr$_2$RuO$_4$ at 1.5~K. The 1.5-K phase is believed to be a spin-triplet, chiral $p$-wave state with the multi-component order parameter, giving rise to chiral domain structure. In contrast, the 3-K phase is attributable to enhanced superconductivity of Sr$_2$RuO$_4$ in the strained interface region between Ru inclusion of a few to tens of micrometers in size and the surrounding Sr$_2$RuO$_4$. We investigate the dynamic behavior of a topol…
We report quantum oscillation measurements on CaFe2As2 under strong magnetic fields- recently reported to become superconducting under pressures of as little as a kilobar. The largest observed carrier pocket occupies less than 0.05 % of the paramagnetic Brillouin zone volume- consistent with Fermi surface reconstruction caused by antiferromagnetism. On comparing several alkali earth AFe2As2 antiferromagnets (with A=Ca,Sr and Ba), the dependence of both the Fermi surface cross-sectional area F_alpha and the effective mass m*_alpha of the primary observed pocket on the antiferromagnetic/structur…
The anomalous ground state phase shift in S/AF/S Josephson junctions in the presence of the Rashba SO-coupling is predicted and numerically investigated. It is found to be a consequence of the uncompensated magnetic moment at the S/AF interfaces. The anomalous phase shift exhibits a strong dependence on the value of the SO-coupling and the sublattice magnetization with the simultaneous existence of stable and metastable branches. It depends strongly on the orientation of the Neel vector with respect to the S/AF interfaces via the dependence on the orientation of the interface uncompensated mag…
We propose a route to achieve odd-parity spin-triplet superconductivity in metallic collinear antiferromagnets with inversion symmetry. Owing to the existence of hidden antiunitary symmetry, which we call the effective time-reversal symmetry (eTRS), the Fermi surfaces of ordinary antiferromagnetic metals are generally spin-degenerate, and spin-singlet pairing is favored. However, by introducing a local inversion symmetry breaking perturbation that also breaks the eTRS, we can lift the degeneracy to obtain spin-polarized Fermi surfaces. In the weak-coupling limit, the spin-polarized Fermi surfa…
We investigate theoretically magnon-mediated superconductivity in a heterostructure consisting of a normal metal and a two-sublattice antiferromagnetic insulator. The attractive electron-electron pairing interaction is caused by an interfacial exchange coupling with magnons residing in the antiferromagnet, resulting in p-wave, spin-triplet superconductivity in the normal metal. Our main finding is that one may significantly enhance the superconducting critical temperature by coupling the normal metal to only one of the two antiferromagnetic sublattices employing, for example, an uncompensated …
We report on magnetization, specific heat and resistivity experiments on single crystals of the novel heavy Fermion compound Ce$_3$PdIn$_{11}$. At ambient pressure the compound exhibits two successive transitions at T$_{1}$ = 1.63 K and T$_{\mathrm {N}}$ = 1.49 K into incommensurate and commensurate local moment antiferromagnetic states, respectively, before becoming superconducting below T$_{\mathrm {c}}$ = 0.42 K. The large values of dB$_{\mathrm {c2}}$/dT and B$_{\mathrm {c2}}$ = 2.8 T imply that heavy quasiparticles form the Cooper pairs. Thus, Ce$_{3}$PdIn$_{11}$ is the first ambient pres…
