The measurements (Phys.Rev.B {\bf 100}, 220504(R) (2019)) do not detect noticeable thermal conductivity in superconducting UTe$_2$ in the T=0 limit. At the same time the same crystals exhibit a large residual density of states comparable with its normal state value. The improvement of samples quality leads to the augmentation of critical temperature of transition to the superconducting state accompanied by the decreasing of residual specific heat ratio $C(T)/T$ at $T\to 0$. There is presented an analytic derivation of this inverse correlation property in concrete cases of triplet superconducting states with node-less and point-nodes order parameters allowed by symmetry in UTe$_2$. The obtained explicit formulas for the residual thermal conductivity are in reasonable correspondence with observations.
Thermal conductivity of superconducting MgB2 was studied in both the superconducting and the normal state region. The latter is almost equally determined by the electronic - and the lattice contribution to the total thermal conductivity. In the superconducting state, however, the lattice contribution is larger. The electronic thermal conductivity below Tc was derived from the experimental data considering the Bardeen-Rickayzen-Tewordt theory together with the model of Geilikman. The analysis shows that electron scattering on static imperfections dominates.
The superconducting state of the heavy fermion PrOs4Sb12 is studied by heat transport measure- ments on a highly homogeneous single crystal exhibiting only one transition peak in the specific heat. The field and temperature dependence of the thermal conductivity confirm multiband super- conductivity and point to fully open gaps on the whole Fermi surface.
We study the effect of thermal fluctuations on the critical dynamics of the three-dimensional disordered superconductor across the normal-superconducting transition. We employ a phenomenological hydrodynamic approach, and in particular find the thermal conductivity to be smooth and non-singular at the transition.
We analyze the behavior of the superconducting-fluctuations contribution to diamagnetism and conductivity in a model system having current-current interactions. We show that in proximity to a Mott-insulating phase one recovers an overall suppression of the fluctuating contribution to the conductivity with respect to diamagnetism, in close analogy with recent experiments on the underdoped phase of cuprate superconductors.
We have studied the Hall effect in superconducting tantalum nitride films. We find a large contribution to the Hall conductivity near the superconducting transition, which we can track to temperatures well above $T_c$ and magnetic fields well above the upper critical field, $\text{\text{H}}_{c2}(0)$. This contribution arises from Aslamazov-Larkin superconducting fluctuations, and we find quantitative agreement between our data and recent theoretical analysis based on time dependent Ginzburg-Landau theory.
We report the complex optical conductivity of a superconducting thin-film of Nb$_{0.5}$Ti$_{0.5}$N in an external magnetic field. The field was applied parallel to the film surface and the conductivity extracted from far-infrared transmission and reflection measurements. The real part shows the superconducting gap, which we observe to be suppressed by the applied magnetic field. We compare our results with the pair-breaking theory of Abrikosov and Gor'kov and confirm directly the theory's validity for the optical conductivity.
We report the first study of the optical conductivity of MgB2 covering the range of its superconducting energy gap. Terahertz time-domain spectroscopy is utilized to determine the complex, frequency-dependent conductivity of thin films. The imaginary part reveals an inductive reponse due to the emergence of the superconducting condensate. The real part exhibits a strong depletion of oscillator strength near 5 meV resulting from the opening of a superconducting energy gap. The gap ratio of 2Delta/kTc = 1.9 is well below the weak-coupling value, pointing to complex behavior in this novel superco…
We study the intrinsic Hall conductivity of the ordinary and topological superconducting phases of a Rashba metal in a perpendicular Zeeman field. In this system the normal metal breaks time reversal symmetry while the superconducting order parameter does not, in contrast to the chiral p-wave superconducting state predicted in the monolayer strontium ruthenate (Sr$_2$RuO$_4$) whose Hall conductivity has been studied extensively. We study the effects of intra-band and inter-band pairing and find there is qualitatively larger change in the intrinsic Hall conductivity when there is inter-band pai…
Using the self-consistent approximation we calculate conductivity in an anisotropic heterogeneous media with superconducting inclusions and compare the results with those obtained previously using the Maxwell approximation and with available experimental data on excess conductivity above $ T_c= $~8K in FeSe. Advantages and drawbacks of these two approximations are discussed. The obtained analytical formulas can be applied to various other anisotropic heterogeneous superconductors, including high-Tc layered superconductors.
The low temperature behaviour of the in-plane and c-axis conductivity of electron-doped cuprates like NCCO is examined; it is shown to be consistent with an isotropic quasiparticle scattering rate and an anisotropic interlayer hopping parameter which is non-zero for planar momenta along the direction of the d$_{x^2-y^2}$ order parameter nodes. Based on these hypotheses we find that both, the in-plane and the c-axis conductivity, vary linearly with temperature, in agreement with experimental data at millimiter-wave frequencies.
We study the effect of superconducting fluctuations on the longitudinal and the transverse (Hall) conductivity in homogeneously disordered films. Our calculation is based on the Usadel equation in the real-time formulation. We adjust this approach to derive analytic expressions for the fluctuation corrections in the entire metallic part of the temperature-magnetic field phase diagram, including the effects of both classical and quantum fluctuations. This method allows us to obtain fluctuation corrections in a compact and effective way, establishing a direct connection between phenomenological …
Frequency-dependent terahertz conductivities of La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ thin films with various carrier concentrations were investigated. The imaginary part of the complex conductivity considerably increased from far above a zero-resistance superconducting transition temperature, $T_\text{c}^\text{zero}$, because of the existence of the fluctuating superfluid density with a short lifetime. The onset temperature of the superconducting fluctuation is at most $\sim 2T_\text{c}^\text{zero}$ for underdoped samples, which is consistent with the previously reported analysis of microwave conductivity.…
Driving superconductors out of equilibrium is a promising avenue to study their equilibrium properties as well as to control the superconducting state. Non-equilibrium superconductors are often studied using time resolved optical conductivity measurements. Thus, the characterization of a superconducting state in a pump driven non-equilibrium state requires careful attention in the time domain. We calculate time-resolved optical conductivity of a pumped superconducting state using a non-equilibrium Keldysh approach. Through functional derivation, the optical conductivity is obtained with full v…
The superconductivity precursor phenomena in high temperature cuprate superconductors was studied by direct measurements of superconducting condensate with the use of the $c$-axis optical conductivity of YBa$_{2}$(Cu$_{1-x}$Zn$_{x}$)$_{3}$O$_{y}$ for several doping levels ($p$) as well as for several Zn-concentrations. Both of the real and imaginary part of the optical conductivity clearly showed that the superconducting carriers persist up to the high temperatures $T$$_{p}$ that is higher than the critical temperature $T$$_{c}$ but lower than the pseudogap temperature $T$$^{\ast}$. $T$$_{p}$ …
To clarify the superconducting gap structure of the spin-triplet superconductor Sr_2RuO_4, the in-plane thermal conductivity has been measured as a function of relative orientations of the thermal flow, the crystal axes, and a magnetic field rotating within the 2D RuO_2 planes. The in-plane variation of the thermal conductivity is incompatible with any model with line nodes vertical to the 2D planes and indicates the existence of horizontal nodes. These results place strong constraints on models that attempt to explain the mechanism of the triplet superconductivity.
In this paper, we discuss the c axis optical conductivity Re [sigma_c(omega)] in the high T_c superconductors, in the superconducting state. The basic premise of this work is that electrons travelling along the c axis between adjacent CuO_2 layers must pass through several intervening layers. In earlier work we found that, for weak inter-layer coupling, it is preferable for electrons to travel along the c axis by making a series of interband transitions rather than to stay within a single (and very narrow) band. Moreover, we found that many of the properties of the normal state optical conduct…
We measured the in-plane optical conductivity of a nearly optimally doped (Ba,K)Fe2As2 single crystal with Tc = 39.1 K. Upon entering the superconducting state the optical conductivity below ~20 meV vanishes, strongly suggesting a fully gapped system. A BCS-like fit requires two different isotropic gaps to describe the optical response of this material. The temperature dependence of the gaps and the penetration depth suggest a strong interband coupling, but no impurity scattering induced pair breaking is present. This contrasts to the large residual conductivity observed in optimally doped Ba(…
The temperature-dependent optical reflectivity and complex transmissivity of an epitaxially grown Ba(Fe$_{0.9}$Co$_{0.1}$)$_2$As$_2$ thin film were measured and the optical conductivity and permittivity evaluated over a wide frequency range. The opening of the superconducting gap $2Δ_0 = 3.7$ meV below $T_c\approx 20$ K is {\em directly} observed by a completely vanishing optical conductivity. The temperature and frequency dependent electrodynamic properties of Ba(Fe$_{0.9}$Co$_{0.1}$)$_2$As$_2$ in the superconducting state agree well with the BCS predictions with no nodes in the order paramet…
We present thermal conductivity measurements on very pure and dense bulk samples, as indicated by residual resistivity values as low as 0.5 mW cm and thermal conductivity values higher than 200 W/mK. In the normal state we found that the Wiedemann Franz law, in its generalized form, works well suggesting that phonons do not contribute to the heat transport. The thermal conductivity in the superconducting state has been analysed by using a two-gap model. Thank to the large gap anisotropy we were able to evaluate quantitatively intraband scattering relaxation times of $π$ and $σ$ bands, which de…
We study dynamics of a two-dimensional s-wave superconductor in the presence of a moving single vortex. Our analysis is based on the quasiclassical theory including the Hall term, generalized by Kita[T. Kita, PRB, 64, 054503 (2001)]. We numerically calculate the linear response of a moving single vortex driven by a dc external current in a self-consistent way, in the sense that Dyson equation, gap equation, Maxwell equations and generalized quasiclassical equation are solved simultaneously. We obtain Hall conductivity induced by vortex motion using the generalized quasiclassical equation, whil…
We investigated the complex conductivity spectrum of a Co-doped BaFe$_2$As$_2$ epitaxial thin film in the THz region. In the normal state, the complex conductivity shows a Drude-type frequency dependence, while in the superconducting state, the frequency dependence of the complex conductivity changes to that of a typical superconducting materials. We estimated the magnetic penetration depth at absolute zero to be 710 nm and the superconducting gap energy to be 2.8 meV, which is considered to be the superconducting gap opened at the electron-type Fermi surface near the M point. We succeeded in …
We report investigations of molybdenum nitride (MoN) thin films with different thickness and disorder and with superconducting transition temperature 9.89 K $\ge{T_c}\ge$ 2.78 K. Using terahertz frequency-domain spectroscopy we explore the normal and superconducting charge carrier dynamics for frequencies covering the range from 3 to 38 cm$^{-1}$ (0.1 to 1.1 THz). The superconducting energy scales, i.e. the critical temperature $T_c$, the pairing energy $Δ$, and the superfluid stiffness $J$, and the superfluid density $n_s$ can be well described within the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer theory for …
Our measurements of the low frequency ac conductivity in strongly disordered two-dimensional films near the magnetic field-tuned superconductor-to-insulator transition show a sudden drop in the phase stiffness of superconducting order with either increased temperature or magnetic field. Surprisingly, for two different material systems, the abrupt drop in the superfluid density in a magnetic field has the same universal value as that expected for a Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition in zero magnetic field. The characteristic temperature at which phase stiffness is suddenly lost can be t…
The optical response of the two-band superconductor MgB$_2$ has been studied in the 0.7-4 THz range on films with very low impurity level. The effect of the high-energy $σ$-gap is observed in the ratio $R_S/R_N$ between the normal and superconducting state reflectance, while in a neutron irradiated film with a slightly higher impurity level mainly the effect of the $π$-gap is evident as reported in previous experiments. At terahertz frequencies, the electrodynamic of MgB$_2$ can be well described by the two-band parallel conductivity model and is dominated by the $π$-bands when the impurity le…
The thermopower and thermal conductivity of superconducting perovskite $MgCNi_3$ ($T_c \approx$ 8 K) have been studied. The thermopower is negative from room temperature to 10 K. Combining with the negative Hall coefficient reported previously, the negative thermopower definetly indicates that the carrier in $MgCNi_3$ is electron-type. The nonlinear temperature dependence of thermopower below 150 K is explained by the electron-phonon interaction renormalization effects. The thermal conductivity is of the order for intermetallics, larger than that of borocarbides and smaller than $MgB_2$. In th…
We have measured the complex dynamical conductivity, $σ= σ_{1} + iσ_{2}$, of superconducting Ba(Fe$_{0.9}$Co$_{0.1}$)$_{2}$As$_{2}$ ($T_{c} = 22$ K) at terahertz frequencies and temperatures 2 - 30 K. In the frequency dependence of $σ_{1}$ below $T_{c}$, we observe clear signatures of the superconducting energy gap opening. The temperature dependence of $σ_{1}$ demonstrates a pronounced coherence peak at frequencies below 15 cm$^{-1}$ (1.8 meV). The temperature dependence of the penetration depth, calculated from $σ_{2}$, shows power-law behavior at the lowest temperatures. Analysis of the con…
We report a systematic study of the dynamic microwave conductivity near $T_c$ for La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ (LSCO) thin films with $x$=0.07 to 0.16. The strong frequency dependence of the phase stiffness together with scaling analysis of the ac fluctuating conductivity of superconductivity provide direct evidence for the 2D-XY behavior of nearly decoupled CuO$_2$ planes in underdoped LSCO ($x$=0.07 and 0.12). On the other hand, the critical exponents for slightly overdoped LSCO ($x$=0.16) were found to agree with those for the relaxational 3D-XY model, indicating that the universality class in L…
We measured the optical conductivity of superconducting LiFeAs. In the superconducting state, the formation of the condensate leads to a spectral-weight loss and yields a penetration depth of 225 nm. No sharp signature of the superconducting gap is observed. This suggests that the system is likely in the clean limit. A Drude-Lorentz parametrization of the data in the normal state reveals a quasiparticle scattering rate supportive of spin fluctuations and proximity to a quantum critical point.
We report on the first measurements of thermal conductivity in the superconducting state of (TMTSF)_2ClO_4. The electronic contribution to heat transport is found to decrease rapidly below T_c, indicating the absence of low-energy electronic excitations. We argue that this result provides strong evidence for a nodeless superconducting gap function but does not exclude a possible unconventional order parameter.
Imaginary part of the microwave conductivity σ''(T<T_c) and the resistivity ρ(T)=1/σ(T>T_c) along (σ_{ab}'' and ρ_{ab}) and perpendicular to (σ_c'' and ρ_c) cuprate ab-planes of YBa_2Cu_3O_{7-x} crystal were measured in the temperature range 5\leq T \leq 200 K, having varied the oxygen doping level x in the crystal from 0.07 to 0.47. The superconducting state was found to have the dependences σ_{ab}''(T)/σ_{ab}''(0) and σ_c''(T)/σ_c''(0) coincide in the optimally doped (x=0.07) crystal. With the increase of x the dependences σ_c''(T)/σ_c''(0) have smaller slope at T<T_c/3 with σ_{ab}''(T)/σ_{a…
Nonlinear conductivity of point contacts (PCs) on the base of FeSe single crystals has been investigated. Measured dV/dI dependencies demonstrate the prevailing contribution to the PC conductivity caused by the degraded surface. Superconducting (SC) feature in dV/dI like a sharp zero-bias minimum develops for relatively low ohmic PCs, where the deep areas of FeSe are involved. Analysis of dV/dI has shown that the origin of the zero-bias minimum is connected with the Maxwell part of the PC resistance, what masks energy dependent spectral peculiarities. Even so, we have found the specific featur…
We have recently proposed the s+g wave model for superconducting borocarbides. In spite of a substantial s-wave component, this order parameter exhibits the H^1/2 dependent specific heat and a thermal conductivity linear in H in the vortex state. This is characteristic for nodal superconductors when T, Γ<< Δwhere Γis the quasiparticle scattering rate and Δthe maximum superconducting gap. Here we investigate the thermal conductivity parallel to the c- and a- axis in a magnetic field tilted by θfrom the c- axis and rotating within the a-b plane.
We report a complete analytical expression for the one-loop correction to the ac conductivity $σ(ω)$ of a disordered two-dimensional electron system in the diffusive regime. The obtained expression includes the weak localization and Altshuler-Aronov corrections as well as the corrections due to superconducting fluctuations above superconducting transition temperature. The derived expression has no $1/(iω)$ divergency in the static limit, $ω\to 0$, in agreement with general expectations for the normal state conductivity of a disordered electron system.
We propose a model and derive analytical expressions for conductivity in heterogeneous fully anisotropic conductors with ellipsoid superconducting inclusions. This model and calculations are useful to analyze the observed temperature dependence of conductivity anisotropy in various anisotropic superconductors, where superconductivity onset happens inhomogeneously in the form of isolated superconducting islands. The results are applied to explain the experimental data on resistivity above the transition temperature $T_c$ in the high-temperature superconductor $\mathrm{YBa_2Cu_4O_8}$ and in the …
Opticcal conductivity spectra $σ_1(ω)$ of Nd2-xCexCuO4 thin films, measured by the reflectance-transmittance method (R-T method) which has been proposed to investigate far-infrared spectroscopy, are investigated based on the anisotropic pairing model. Precise measurements of the frequency-dependent conductivity enable us to examine quantitatively the nature of the superconducting gap through infrared properties in the electron-doped high-Tc superconductors. We show that the behavior of optical conductivity $σ_1$ is consistent with the anisotropic superconducting gap and is well explained by th…
We evaluate the superconducting fluctuation corrections to thermal conductivity in the normal state which diverge as T approaches T_c. We find zero total contribution for one, two and three-dimensional superconductors for arbitrary impurity concentration. The method used is diagrammatic many-body theory, and all contributions -- Aslamazov-Larkin (AL), Maki-Thompson (MT), and density-of-states (DOS) -- are considered. The AL contribution is convergent, whilst the divergences of the DOS and MT diagrams exactly cancel.
We calculate the ultrasonic absorption and the thermal conductivity in the superconducting state of UPt$_{3}$ as functions of temperature and direction of propagation and polarization. Two leading candidates for the superconducting order parameter are considered: the $E_{1g}$ and $E_{2u}$ representations. Both can fit the data except for the ultrasonic absorption in the $A$ phase. To do that, it is necessary to suppose that the system has only a single domain, and that must be chosen as the most favorable one. However, the $E_{2u}$ theory requires fine-tuning of parameters to fit the low tempe…
The conductivity sum rule for a one-band hopping model relates the integrated spectral weight of the real part of the conductivity to the average kinetic energy. For such a model, the superconducting penetration depth is therefore dependent upon both the change in the conductivity spectral weight and the change in kinetic energy between the normal and superconducting states. Here we examine the consequences of this for the c-axis penetration depth of a layered system in which the charge transfer perpendicular to the layers (along the c-axis) is mediated by interlayer impurity scattering.
We comment on the model proposed by Orenstein and Dodge in arXiv:1506.06758v1, which describes time-domain terahertz measurements of transiently generated, high-electron-mobility (or superconducting) phases of solids. The authors' main conclusion is that time-domain terahertz spectroscopy does not measure a response function that is mathematically identical to the transient optical conductivity. We show that although this is correct, the difference between the measured response function and the microscopic optical conductivity is small for realistic experimental parameters. We also show that f…
The Hall conductivities of HgBa_{2}CaCu_{2}O_{6+δ}and HgBa_{2}Ca_{2}Cu_{3}O_{8+δ} thin films are investigated for a magnetic field parallel to the c axis. The mixed-state Hall conductivity for these compounds is well described by σ_{xy}=C_{1}/H+C_{2}+C_{3}H. The prefactor C_1 shows a temperature dependence of the form C_1 = A(1-t)^n near T_c, where t=T/T_c is the reduced temperature. Contrary to the previous results, C_2 also follows a temperature-scaling behavior similar to that of the coefficient C_1. The observed value of n = 1.8 - 2.3 is comparable to the previously observed values for YBa…
We present a comprehensive study of how superconducting fluctuations in the normal state contribute to the conductivity tensor in a thin (119 $Å$) film of NbN. It is shown how these fluctuations drive a sign change in the Hall coefficient $R_\mathrm{H}$ for low magnetic fields near the superconducting transition. The scaling behaviours as a function of distance to the transition $ε=\ln(T/T_\mathrm{c})$ of the longitudinal ($σ_\mathrm{xx}$) and transverse ($σ_\mathrm{xy}$) conductivity is found to be consistent with Gaussian fluctuation theory. Moreover, excellent quantitative agreement between…
On the dilemma between percolation processes and fluctuating pairs as the origin of the enhanced conductivity above the superconducting transition in cuprates
We measured the temperature dependence of the in-plane polarized reflectivity spectra of twin-free Y$_{1-x}$Ca$_{x}$Ba$_{2}$Cu$_{3}$O$_{7-δ}$ single crystals with different Ca-concentrations (x=0,0.11 and 0.16) from optimally doped to heavily overdoped region. Low energy optical conductivity spectra showed a Drude-like residual conductivity at temperatures far below the superconducting transition temperature, which indicates the presence of unpaired-normal carriers in the superconducting state. Comparing the spectra at a fixed Ca-content or at a fixed doping level, we have revealed that the ca…
Motivated by a previous "$sd^2$-graphene" study, the pairing symmetry in the superconducting state and the thermal Hall conductivity are investigated by a self-consistent Bogoliubov--de Gennes approach on the kagome lattice with intrinsic spin-orbit coupling near van Hove fillings. While the topologically trivial state with broken time-reversal symmetry appears in the absence of spin-orbit coupling, the highest flat band becomes dispersive with a hexagonal symmetry due to spin-orbit coupling, which leads to a topological superconducting state. Since the thermal Hall conductivity in the low-tem…
How to determine the symmetry of the superconducting order parameter is one of the important issues in novel superconductors, which include charge conjugated organic superconductors. We have proposed that the angular dependence of the thermal conductivity in a planar magnetic field provides a new window to look at the symmetry of the order parameter. After a brief summary of the quasiclassical approach we describe how the symmetry of the superconducting order parameter in Sr$_2$RuO$_4$, CeCoIn$_5$ and $κ$-(ET)$_2$Cu(NCS)$_2$ is determined. Also in some of experiments the phononic thermal condu…
We calculate the thermal conductivity kappa in magnetic fields near H_c2 for spin-triplet superconducting states with line nodes vertical and horizontal relative to the RuO_2-planes. The method for calculating the Green's functions takes into account the spatial variation of the order parameter and superconducting flow for the Abrikosov vortex lattice. For in-plane magnetic field we obtain variations of the in-plane kappa with two-fold symmetry as a function of rotation angle where the minima and maxima occur for field directions parallel and perpendicular to the heat flow. The amplitude of th…
We first present detailed measurements of the rounding behavior around the superconducting transition temperature, $T_c$, of the in-plane electrical conductivity, magnetoconductivity and magnetization, including the low and moderate magnetic field regimes, in a high-quality single crystal and a thin film of the prototypical optimally-doped YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{7-δ}$ (OPT Y-123), in which the inhomogeneity effects are minimized. Then, it is presented a comparison of these experimental data with the phenomenological Ginzburg-Landau (GL) approach that takes into account the unavoidable contribution o…
The anisotropy in the temperature dependence of the in-plane and c-axis conductivities of high-T_c cuprates in the superconducting state is shown to be consistent with a strong in-plane momentum dependence of both the quasiparticle scattering rate and the interlayer hopping integral. Applying the cold spot scattering model recently proposed by Ioffe and Millis (Phys. Rev. B {\bf 58}, 11631 (1998)) to the superconducting state, we find that the c-axis conductivity varies approximately as T^3 in an intermediate temperature regime, in good agreement with the experimental result for optimally dope…
The thermal conductivity of organic superconductor kappa-(BEDT-TTF)2Cu(NCS)2 (Tc =10.4 K) has been studied in a magnetic field rotating within the 2D superconducting planes with high alignment precision. At low temperatures (T < 0.5 K), a clear fourfold symmetry in the angular variation, which is characteristic of a d-wave superconducting gap with nodes along the directions rotated 45 degrees relative to the b and c axes of the crystal, was resolved. The determined nodal structure is inconsistent with recent theoretical predictions of superconductivity induced by the antiferromagnetic spin flu…
We present new measurements of the thermal conductivity of UPt3 down to very low temperatures (16mK) and under magnetic fields (up to 4 T) which cover all the superconducting phases of UPt3. The measurements in zero field are compared with recent theoretical predictions for the thermal conductivity, which is dominated by impurity states at the lowest temperatures studied. The measurements under magnetic field at low temperatures are surprising since they don't show the expected low field square root dependence. The discontinuity of d kappa/dT at Tc changes drastically when passing from the hig…
We compute the optical conductivity of 2D f-wave superconductors and also of the multigap model proposed recently by Zhitomirsky and Rice at T=0K in the Born limit. The presence of interband impurity scattering was found to play an important role: the contributions from the two bands mix up, and new structures are seen in the tunneling density of states and in the optical spectrum as well, corresponding to interband transitions. This will provide a sensitive test in selecting the competing models for the triplet superconductivity in Sr_2RuO_4.
We calculate the fluctuation correction to the normal state conductivity in the vicinity of a quantum phase transition from a superconducting to normal state, induced by applying a magnetic field parallel to a dirty thin film or a nanowire with thickness smaller than the superconducting coherence length. We find that at zero temperature, where the correction comes purely from quantum fluctuations, the positive Aslamazov-Larkin contribution, the negative density of states contribution, and the Maki-Thompson interference contribution, are all of the same order and the total correction is negativ…
We present data analyses of the thermal conductivity and specific heat of electron-doped Pr1.85Ce0.15CuO4-y. The zero-field thermal conductivity and specific heat of this optimally electrondoped system can be only explained by a nodeless gap symmetry. The magnetic-field dependence of the electronic specific heat in the vortex state is in quantitative agreement with an s-wave theory. Our quantitative data analyses provide bulk evidence for a nodeless gap symmetry in optimally electron-doped cuprates.
Superconducting Pr$_2$CuO$_x$, $x\simeq 4$ films with $T^\prime$ structure and a $T_c$ of 27 K have been investigated by millimeter-wave transmission and broadband (infrared-to-ultraviolet) reflectivity measurements in the normal and superconducting state. The results obtained by both experimental methods show a consistent picture of the superconducting condensate formation below $T_c$. An Eliashberg analysis of the data proves $d$-wave superconductivity and unitary-limit impurity scattering of the charge carriers below $T_{c}$. The derived electron-exchange boson interaction spectral function…
The in-plane thermal conductivity $κ$ of overdoped FeAs-based superconductor BaFe$_{1.73}$Co$_{0.27}$As$_2$ ($T_c$ = 8.1 K) single crystal was measured down to 80 mK. In zero field, the residual linear term $κ_0/T$ is negligible, suggesting a nodeless superconducting gap in the $ab$-plane. In magnetic field, $κ_0/T$ increases rapidly, very different from that of conventional s-wave superconductors. This anomalous $κ_0/T(H)$ may reveal an exotic superconducting gap structure in overdoped BaFe$_{1.73}$Co$_{0.27}$As$_2$: the vanishing hole ($β$) pocket has a much larger gap than the electron ($γ$…
We have measured the number of quasiparticles and their lifetime in aluminium superconducting microwave resonators. The number of excess quasiparticles below 160 mK decreases from 72 to 17 $μ$m$^{-3}$ with a 6 dB decrease of the microwave power. The quasiparticle lifetime increases accordingly from 1.4 to 3.5 ms. These properties of the superconductor were measured through the spectrum of correlated fluctuations in the quasiparticle system and condensate of the superconductor, which show up in the resonator amplitude and phase respectively. Because uncorrelated noise sources vanish, fluctuatio…
