No Arabic abstract
We study the effect of a strong electric field on the fluctuation conductivity within the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau theory for the case of arbitrary dimension. Our results are based on the analytical derivation of the velocity distribution law for the fluctuation Cooper pairs, from the Boltzmann equation. Special attention is drawn to the case of small nonlinearity of conductivity, which can be investigated experimentally. We obtain a general relation between the nonlinear conductivity and the temperature derivative of the linear Aslamazov-Larkin conductivity, applicable to any superconductor. For the important case of layered superconductors we derive an analogous relation between the small nonlinear correction for the conductivity and the fluctuational magnetoconductivity. On the basis of these relations we provide new experimental methods for determining both the lifetime constant of metastable Cooper pairs above T_c and the coherence length. A systematic investigation of the 3rd harmonic of the electric field generated by a harmonic current can serve as an alternative method for the examination of the metastable Cooper-pair relaxation time.
Effects of strong electric fields on hopping conductivity are studied theoretically. Monte-Carlo computer simulations show that the analytical theory of Nguyen and Shklovskii [Solid State Commun. 38, 99 (1981)] provides an accurate description of hopping transport in the limit of very high electric fields and low concentrations of charge carriers as compared to the concentration of localization sites and also at the relative concentration of carriers equal to 0.5. At intermediate concentrations of carriers between 0.1 and 0.5 computer simulations evidence essential deviations from the results of the existing analytical theories. The theory of Nguyen and Shklovskii also predicts a negative differential hopping conductivity at high electric fields. Our numerical calculations confirm this prediction qualitatively. However the field dependence of the drift velocity of charge carriers obtained numerically differs essentially from the one predicted so far. Analytical theory is further developed so that its agreement with numerical results is essentially improved.
We develop a theory of conductivity of type-II superconductors in the flux flow regime taking into account random spatial fluctuations of the system parameters, such as the gap magnitude $Delta$(r) and the diffusion coefficient D(r). We find a contribution to the conductivity that is proportional to the inelastic relaxation time $tau_{in}$, which is much longer than the elastic relaxation time. This new contribution is due to Debye-type relaxation, and it can be much larger than the conventional flux flow conductivity due to Bardeen and Stephen. The new contribution is expected to dominate in clean superconductors at low temperatures and in magnetic fields much smaller than $H_{c2}$.
A theory of dissipative nonlinear conductivity, $sigma_1(omega,H)$, of s-wave superconductors under strong electromagnetic fields at low temperatures is proposed. Closed-form expressions for $sigma_1(H)$ and the surface resistance $R_s(omega,H)$ are obtained in the nonequilibrium dirty limit for which $sigma_1(H)$ has a significant minimum as a function of a low-frequency $(hbaromegall k_BT)$ magnetic field $H$. The calculated microwave suppression of $R_s(H)$ is in good agreement with recent experiments on alloyed Nb resonator cavities. It is shown that superimposed dc and ac fields, $H=H_0+H_acosomega t$, can be used to reduce ac dissipation in thin film nanostructures by tuning $sigma_1(H_0)$ with the dc field.
Fluctuations around an antiferromagnetic quantum critical point (QCP) are believed to lead to unconventional superconductivity and in some cases to high-temperature superconductivity. However, the exact mechanism by which this occurs remains poorly understood. The iron-pnictide superconductor BaFe$_2$(As$_{1-x}$P$_x$)$_2$ is perhaps the clearest example to date of a high temperature quantum critical superconductor, and so it is a particularly suitable system in which to study how the quantum critical fluctuations affect the superconducting state. Here we show that the proximity of the QCP yields unexpected anomalies in the superconducting critical fields. We find that both the lower and upper critical fields strongly violate the expectations from the conventional theory taking into account the observed mass enhancement near the QCP. These anomalous behaviours of the critical fields imply that the energy of superconducting vortices is enhanced, possibly due to a microscopic mixing of antiferromagnetism and superconductivity, suggesting that a highly unusual vortex state is realised in quantum critical superconductors.
We study the phase transition between the normal and non-uniform (Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov) superconducting state in quasi two-dimensional d-wave superconductors at finite temperature. We obtain an appropriate Ginzburg-Landau theory for this transition, in which the fluctuation spectrum of the order parameter has a set of minima at non-zero momenta. The momentum shell renormalization group procedure combined with dimensional expansion is then applied to analyze the phase structure of the theory. We find that all fixed points have more than one relevant directions, indicating the transition is of the fluctuation-driven first order type for this universality class.