No Arabic abstract
We predict the enhanced transmissivity of modulated slabs of layered superconductors for terahertz radiation due to the diffraction of the incident wave and the resonance excitation of the eigenmodes. The electromagnetic field is transferred from the irradiated side of a slab of layered superconductor to the other one by excited waveguide modes (WGMs) which do not decay deep into the slab, contrary to metals, where the enhanced light transmission is caused by the excitation of the evanescent surface waves. We show that a series of resonance peaks (with $T sim 1$) can be observed in the dependence of the transmittance $T$ on the varying incidence angle $theta$, when the dispersion curve of the diffracted wave crosses successive dispersion curves for the WGMs.
A highlight of Fermi-liquid phenomenology, as explored in neutral $^3$He, is the observation that in the collisionless regime shear stress propagates as if one is dealing with the transverse phonon of a solid. The existence of this $$transverse zero sound$$ requires that the quasiparticle mass enhancement exceeds a critical value. Could such a propagating shear stress also exist in strongly correlated electron systems? Despite some noticeable differences with the neutral case in the Galilean continuum, we arrive at the verdict that transverse zero sound should be generic. We present an experimental setup that should be exquisitely sensitive in this regard: the transmission of terahertz radiation through a thin slab of heavy-fermion material will be strongly enhanced at low temperature and accompanied by giant oscillations, which reflect the interference between light itself and the $$material photon$$ being the actual manifestation of transverse zero sound in the charged Fermi liquid.
We propose and analyze the detector of modulated terahertz (THz) radiation based on the graphene field-effect transistor with mechanically floating gate made of graphene as well. The THz component of incoming radiation induces resonant excitation of plasma oscillations in graphene layers (GLs). The rectified component of the ponderomotive force between GLs invokes resonant mechanical swinging of top GL, resulting in the drain current oscillations. To estimate the device responsivity, we solve the hydrodynamic equations for the electrons and holes in graphene governing the plasma-wave response, and the equation describing the graphene membrane oscillations. The combined plasma-mechanical resonance raises the current amplitude by up to four orders of magnitude. The use of graphene as a material for the elastic gate and conductive channel allows the voltage tuning of both resonant frequencies in a wide range.
Recent low-temperature scanning tunnelling spectroscopy experiments on the surface of BSCCO-2212 have revealed a strong positive correlation between the position of localized resonances at -960 meV identified with interstitial oxygen dopants and the size of the local spectral gap. We review efforts to understand these correlations within a model where the dopants modulate the pair interaction on an atomic scale. We provide further evidence for this model by comparing the correlations between the dopants and the local density of states with experimental results.
The hallmark of superconductivity is the rigidity of the quantum-mechanical phase of electrons, responsible for superfluid behavior and Meissner effect. The strength of the phase stiffness is set by the Josephson coupling, which is strongly anisotropic in layered superconducting cuprates. So far, THz light pulses have been efficiently used to achieve non-linear control of the out-of-plane Josephson plasma mode, whose frequency scale lies in the THz range. However, the high-energy in-plane plasma mode has been assumed to be insensitive to THz pumping. Here, we show that THz driving of both low-frequency and high-frequency plasma waves is possible via a general two-plasmon excitation mechanism. The anisotropy of the Josephson couplings leads to marked differences in the thermal effects among the out-of-plane and in-plane response, consistently with the experiments. Our results link the observed survival of the in-plane THz non-linear driving above $T_c$ to enhanced fluctuating effects in the phase stiffness in cuprates, paving the way to THz impulsive control of phase rigidity in unconventional superconductors.
Comparison of recent experimental STM data with single-impurity and many-impurity Bogoliubov-de Gennes calculations strongly suggests that random out-of-plane dopant atoms in cuprates modulate the pair interaction locally. This type of disorder is crucial to understanding the nanoscale electronic structure inhomogeneity observed in BSCCO-2212, and can reproduce observed correlations between the positions of impurity atoms and various aspects of the local density of states such as the gap magnitude and the height of the coherence peaks. Our results imply that each dopant atom modulates the pair interaction on a length scale of order one lattice constant.