No Arabic abstract
We report a highly unusual angular variation of the upper critical field (H_c2) in epitaxial superlattices CeCoIn_5(n)/YbCoIn_5(5), formed by alternating layers of n and a 5 unit-cell thick heavy-fermion superconductor CeCoIn_5 with a strong Pauli effect and normal metal YbCoIn_5, respectively. For the n=3 superlattice, H_{c2}(theta) changes smoothly as a function of the field angle theta. However, close to the superconducting transition temperature, H_{c2}(theta) exhibits a cusp near the parallel field (theta=0 deg). This cusp behavior disappears for n=4 and 5 superlattices. This sudden disappearance suggests the relative dominance of the orbital depairing effect in the n=3 superlattice, which may be due to the suppression of the Pauli effect in a system with local inversion symmetry breaking. Taking into account the temperature dependence of H_{c2}(theta) as well, our results suggest that some exotic superconducting states, including a helical superconducting state, might be realized at high magnetic fields.
We report large enhancement of upper critical field Hc2 observed in superconducting Sr2RuO4 thin films. Through dimensional crossover approaching two dimensions, Hc2 except the in-plane field direction is dramatically enhanced compared to bulks, following a definite relation distinct from bulk one between Hc2 and the transition temperature. The anomalous enhancement of Hc2 is highly suggestive of important changes of the superconducting properties, possibly accompanied with rotation of the triplet d-vector. Our findings will become a crucial step to further explore exotic properties by employing Sr2RuO4 thin films.
We study disorder effects upon the temperature behavior of the upper critical magnetic field in attractive Hubbard model within the generalized $DMFT+Sigma$ approach. We consider the wide range of attraction potentials $U$ - from the weak coupling limit, where superconductivity is described by BCS model, up to the strong coupling limit, where superconducting transition is related to Bose - Einstein condensation (BEC) of compact Cooper pairs, formed at temperatures significantly higher than superconducting transition temperature, as well as the wide range of disorder - from weak to strong, when the system is in the vicinity of Anderson transition. The growth of coupling strength leads to the rapid growth of $H_{c2}(T)$, especially at low temperatures. In BEC limit and in the region of BCS - BEC crossover $H_{c2}(T)$ dependence becomes practically linear. Disordering also leads to the general growth of $H_{c2}(T)$. In BCS limit of weak coupling increasing disorder lead both to the growth of the slope of the upper critical field in the vicinity of transition point and to the increase of $H_{c2}(T)$ in low temperature region. In the limit of strong disorder in the vicinity of the Anderson transition localization corrections lead to the additional growth of $H_{c2}(T)$ at low temperatures, so that the $H_{c2}(T)$ dependence becomes concave. In BCS - BEC crossover region and in BEC limit disorder only slightly influences the slope of the upper critical field close to $T_{c}$. However, in the low temperature region $H_{c2}(T)$ may significantly grow with disorder in the vicinity of the Anderson transition, where localization corrections notably increase $H_{c2}(T=0)$ also making $H_{c2}(T)$ dependence concave.
The normal-state Hall effect and magnetoresisitance (MR) have been measured in the quasi-2D heavy fermion superconductor CeCoIn_5. In the non-Fermi liquid region where the reistivity rho_xx exhibits an almost perfect T-linear dependence, the Hall angle varies as cot theta_H propto T^2 and the MR displays a strong violation of Kohlers rule. We demonstrate a novel relation between the MR and the Hall conductivity, Delta rho_xx/rho_xx propto (sigma_xy rho_xx)^2. These results bear a striking resemblance to the normal-state properties of high-T_c cuprates, indicating universal transport properties in the presence of quasi-2D antiferromagnetic fluctuations near a quantum critical point.
We present a short review of our studies of disorder influence upon Ginzburg - Landau expansion coefficients in Anderson - Hubbard model with attraction in the framework of the generalized DMFT+$Sigma$ approximation. A wide range of attractive potentials $U$ is considered - from weak coupling limit, where superconductivity is described by BCS model, to the limit of very strong coupling, where superconducting transition is related to Bose - Einstein condensation (BEC) of compact Cooper pairs, which are formed at temperatures significantly higher than the temperature of superconducting transition, as well as the wide range of disorders - from weak to strong, when the system is in the vicinity of Anderson transition. For the same range of parameters we study in detail the temperature behavior of orbital and paramagnetic upper critical field $H_{c2}(T)$, which demonstrates the anomalies both due to the growth of attractive potential and the effects of strong disordering.
The discovery of iron-based superconductors caused great excitement, as they were the second high-$T_c$ materials after cuprates. Because of a peculiar topological feature of the electronic band structure, investigators quickly realized that the antiferromagnetic parent phase harbors Dirac fermions. Here we show that the parent phase also exhibits the quantum Hall effect. We determined the longitudinal and Hall conductivities in CaFeAsF up to a magnetic field of 45 T and found that both approach zero above ~40 T. CaFeAsF has Dirac electrons and Schrodinger holes, and our analysis indicates that the Landau-level filling factor $ u$ = 2 for both at these high field strengths. We therefore argue that the $ u$ = 0 quantum Hall state emerges under these conditions. Our finding of quantum Hall physics at play in a topologically nontrivial parent phase adds a new dimension to research on iron-based superconductors and also provides a new material variety for the study of the $ u$ = 0 quantum Hall state.