No Arabic abstract
We study the influence of diagonal disorder (random site energy) of local pair (LP) site energies on the superconducting properties of a system of coexisting local pairs and itinerant electrons described by the (hard-core) boson-fermion model. Our analysis shows that the properties of such a model with s-wave pairing can be very strongly affected by the diagonal disorder in LP subsystem (the randomness of the LP site energies). This is in contrast with the conventional s-wave BCS superconductors, which according to the Andersons theorem are rather insensitive to the diagonal disorder (i.e. to nonmagnetic impurities). It has been found that the disorder effects depend in a crucial way on the total particle concentration n and the LP level position DELTA_o and depending on the parameters the system can exhibit various types of superconducting behaviour, including the LP-like, intermediate (MIXED)and the BCS-like. In the extended range of {n,DELTA_o} the superconducting ordering is suppressed by the randomness of the LP site energies and the increasing disorder induces a changeover from the MIXEDlike behaviour to the BCS-like one, connected with abrupt reduction of T_c and energy gap to zero. However, there also exist a definite range of {n,DELTA_o} in which the increasing disorder has a quite different effect: namely it can substantially enhance T_c or even lead to the phenomenon which can be called disorder induced superconductivity. Another interesting effect is a possibility of a disorder induced bound pair formation of itinerant electrons, connected with the change-over to the LP-like regime.
We study the effects of an external magnetic field on thensuperconducting phase diagram of a quasi-two-dimensional system of Dirac electrons at an arbitrary temperature. At zero temperature, there is a quantum phase transition connecting a normal and a superconducting phase, occurring at a critical line that corresponds to a magnetic field dependent critical coupling parameter, which should be observed in planar materials containing Dirac electrons, such as $Cu_xTiSe_2$. Moreover, the superconducting gap is obtained as a function of temperature, magnetic field and coupling parameter ($lambda_{rm R}$). From this, we extract the critical magnetic field $ B_{ c } $ as a function of the temperature. For small values of $ B_{ c } $, we obtain a linear decay of the critical field, which is similar to the behavior observed experimentally in the copper doped dichalcogenide $Cu_xTiSe_2$ and also in intercalated graphite.
In view of the recent experimental facts in the iron-pnictides, we make a proposal that the itinerant electrons and local moments are simultaneously present in such multiband materials. We study a minimal model composed of coupled itinerant electrons and local moments to illustrate how a consistent explanation of the experimental measurements can be obtained in the leading order approximation. In this mean-field approach, the spin-density-wave (SDW) order and superconducting pairing of the itinerant electrons are not directly driven by the Fermi surface nesting, but are mainly induced by their coupling to the local moments. The presence of the local moments as independent degrees of freedom naturally provides strong pairing strength for superconductivity and also explains the normal-state linear-temperature magnetic susceptibility above the SDW transition temperature. We show that this simple model is supported by various anomalous magnetic properties and isotope effect which are in quantitative agreement with experiments.
The electrical resistance of CeFeAsO$_{1-x}$F$_x$ (x = 0.06 and 0.08) has been measured in a magnetic field up to 40T. At zero field, the sample with x = 0.06 shows a structural phase transition around T$_S$~100K, followed by a spin-density-wave (SDW) transition around T$_{SDW}$~30K. For x = 0.08, the structural phase transition is suppressed down to T$_S$~60K without a clear anomaly associated with the Fe-SDW transition, and superconductivity shows up at T$_C$~25K. At lower temperatures, both samples show a clear resistive peak around T$_N$~4K, which is associated with the antiferromagnetic (AFM) transition of Ce-4f electrons. Strikingly, zero resistance is recovered upon further lowering temperature below T$_N$ for x = 0.08. Moreover, we found that the AFM transition of Ce 4f-electrons at 4K hardly changes with applying a magnetic field up to 40T, even in the case of x = 0.08, where superconductivity has been partially suppressed at such a large field.
A direct and element-specific measurement of the local Fe spin moment has been provided by analyzing the Fe 3s core level photoemission spectra in the parent and optimally doped CeFeAsO1-xFx (x = 0, 0.11) and Sr(Fe1 xCox)2As2 (x = 0, 0.10) pnictides. The rapid time scales of the photoemission process allowed the detection of large local spin moments fluctuating on a 10-15 s time scale in the paramagnetic, anti-ferromagnetic and superconducting phases, indicative of the occurrence of ubiquitous strong Hunds magnetic correlations. The magnitude of the spin moment is found to vary significantly among different families, 1.3 muB in CeFeAsO and 2.1 muB in SrFe2As2. Surprisingly, the spin moment is found to decrease considerably in the optimally doped samples, 0.9 muB in CeFeAsO0.89F0.11 and 1.3 muB in Sr(Fe0.9Co0.1)2As2. The strong variation of the spin moment against doping and material type indicates that the spin moments and the motion of itinerant electrons are influenced reciprocally in a self-consistent fashion, reflecting the strong competition between the antiferromagnetic super-exchange interaction among the spin moments and the kinetic energy gain of the itinerant electrons in the presence of a strong Hunds coupling. By describing the evolution of the magnetic correlations concomitant with the appearance of superconductivity, these results constitute a fundamental step toward attaining a correct description of the microscopic mechanisms shaping the electronic properties in the pnictides, including magnetism and high temperature superconductivity.
We generalize the theory of Cooper pairing by spin excitations in the metallic antiferromagnetic state to include situations with electron and/or hole pockets. We show that Cooper pairing arises from transverse spin waves and from gapped longitudinal spin fluctuations of comparable strength. However, each of these interactions, projected on a particular symmetry of the superconducting gap, acts primarily within one type of pocket. We find a nodeless $d_{x^2-y^2}$-wave state is supported primarily by the longitudinal fluctuations on the electron pockets, and both transverse and longitudinal fluctuations support nodeless odd-parity spin singlet $p-$wave symmetry on the hole pockets. Our results may be relevant to the asymmetry of the AF/SC coexistence state in the cuprate phase diagram, as well as for the nodal gap observed recently for strongly underdoped cuprates.