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Register a new userDisorder-driven superconductor-normal metal phase transition in quasi-one-dimensional organic conductors
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Effects of non-magnetic disorder on the critical temperature T_c and on diamagnetism of quasi-one-dimensional superconductors are reported. The energy of Josephson-coupling between wires is considered to be random, which is typical for dirty organic superconductors. We show that this randomness destroys phase coherence between wires and that T_c vanishes discontinuously at a critical disorder-strength. The parallel and transverse components of the penetration-depth are evaluated. They diverge at different critical temperatures T_c^{(1)} and T_c, which correspond to pair-breaking and phase-coherence breaking respectively. The interplay between disorder and quantum phase fluctuations is shown to result in quantum critical behavior at T=0, which manifests itself as a superconducting-normal metal phase transition of first-order at a critical disorder strength.
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In physical systems, coupling to the environment gives rise to dissipation and decoherence. For nanoscopic materials this may be a determining factor of their physical behavior. However, even for macroscopic many-body systems, if the strength of this coupling is sufficiently strong, their ground state properties and phase diagram may be severely modified. Also dissipation is essential to allow a system in the presence of a time dependent perturbation to attain a steady, time independent state. In this case, the non-equilibrium phase diagram depends on the intensity of the perturbation and on the strength of the coupling of the system to the outside world. In this paper, we investigate the effects of both, dissipation and time dependent external sources in the phase diagram of a many-body system at zero and finite temperatures. For concreteness we consider the specific case of a superconducting layer under the action of an electric field and coupled to a metallic substrate. The former arises from a time dependent vector potential minimally coupled to the electrons in the layer. We introduce a Keldysh approach that allows to obtain the time dependence of the superconducting order parameter in an adiabatic regime. We study the phase diagram of this system as a function of the electric field, the coupling to the metallic substrate and temperature.
Several experimental studies have shown the presence of spatially inhomogeneous phase coexistence of superconducting and non superconducting domains in low dimensional organic superconductors. The superconducting properties of these systems are found to be strongly dependent on the amount of disorder introduced in the sample regardless of its origin. The suppression of the superconducting transition temperature $T_c$ shows clear discrepancy with the result expected from the Abrikosov-Gorkov law giving the behavior of $T_c$ with impurities. Based on the time dependent Ginzburg-Landau theory, we derive a model to account for the striking feature of $T_c$ in organic superconductors for different types of disorder by considering the segregated texture of the system. We show that the calculated $T_c$ quantitatively agrees with experiments. We also focus on the role of superconducting fluctuations on the upper critical fields $H_{c2}$ of layered superconductors showing slab structure where superconducting domains are sandwiched by non-superconducting regions. We found that $H_{c2}$ may be strongly enhanced by such fluctuations.
Although quasi-two-dimensional organic superconductors such as $kappa$-(BEDT-TTF)$_2$Cu(NCS)$_2$ seem to be very clean systems, with apparent quasiparticle mean-free paths of several thousand AA, the superconducting transition is intrinsically broad (e.g $sim 1$ K wide for $T_c approx 10$ K). We propose that this is due to the extreme anisotropy of these materials, which greatly exacerbates the statistical effects of spatial variations in the potential experienced by the quasiparticles. Using a statistical model, we are able to account for the experimental observations. A parameter $bar{x}$, which characterises the spatial potential variations, may be derived from Shubnikov-de Haas oscillation experiments. Using this value, we are able to predict a transition width which is in good agreement with that observed in MHz penetration-depth measurements on the same sample.
Low-dimensional organic conductors could establish themselves as model systems for the investigation of the physics in reduced dimensions. In the metallic state of a one-dimensional solid, Fermi-liquid theory breaks down and spin and charge degrees of freedom become separated. But the metallic phase is not stable in one dimension: as the temperature is reduced, the electronic charge and spin tend to arrange themselves in an ordered fashion due to strong correlations. The competition of the different interactions is responsible for which broken-symmetry ground state is eventually realized in a specific compound and which drives the system towards an insulating state. Here we review the various ordering phenomena and how they can be identified by optic and magnetic measurements. While the final results might look very similar in the case of a charge density wave and a charge-ordered metal, for instance, the physical cause is completely different. When density waves form, a gap opens in the density of states at the Fermi energy due to nesting of the one-dimension Fermi surface sheets. When a one-dimensional metal becomes a charge-ordered Mott insulator, on the other hand, the short-range Coulomb repulsion localizes the charge on the lattice sites and even causes certain charge patterns. We try to point out the similarities and conceptional differences of these phenomena and give an example for each of them. Particular emphasis will be put on collective phenomena which are inherently present as soon as ordering breaks the symmetry of the system.
We review the properties of quasi-one-dimensional organic superconductors: the Bechgaard salts and their sulfur analogs in their normal phase precursor tolong-range order. We go through the main observations made in the normal state of these systems at low magnetic field and tackle the issue of their description under the angles of the Fermi and Luttinger liquid pictures.
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