No Arabic abstract
We report on time-resolved linear and nonlinear terahertz spectroscopy of the two-band superconductor MgB$_2$ with the superconducting transition temperature $T_c approx$ 36 K. Third-harmonic generation (THG) is observed below $T_c$ by driving the system with intense narrowband THz pulses. For the pump-pulse frequencies $f=$ 0.3, 0.4, and 0.5 THz, temperature-dependent evolution of the THG signals exhibits a resonance maximum at the temperature where $2f=2Delta_pi(T)$, for the dirty-limit superconducting gap $2Delta_pi=$ 1.03 THz at 4 K. In contrast, for $f=$ 0.6 and 0.7 THz with $2f>2Delta_pi$, the THG intensity increases monotonically with decreasing temperature. Moreover, for $2f<2Delta_pi$ the THG is found nearly isotropic with respect to the pump-pulse polarization. These results suggest the predominant contribution of the driven Higgs amplitude mode of the dirty-limit gap, pointing to the importance of scattering for observation of the Higgs mode in superconductors.
In order to investigate whether magnetism and superconductivity coexist in Co-doped SrFe$_2$As$_2$, we have prepared single crystals of SrFe$_{2-x}$Co$_x$As$_2$, $x$ = 0 and 0.4, and characterized them via X-ray diffraction, electrical resistivity in zero and applied field up to 9 T as well as at ambient and applied pressure up to 1.6 GPa, and magnetic susceptibility. At $x$ = 0.4, there is both magnetic and resistive evidence for a spin density wave transition at 120 K, while $T_c$ = 19.5 K - indicating coexistent magnetism and superconductivity. A discussion of how these results compare with reported results, both in SrFe$_{2-x}$Co$_x$As$_2$ and in other doped 122 compounds, is given.
Nuclear magnetic resonance measurements were performed on CeCu$_{2}$Si$_{2}$ in the presence of a magnetic field close to the upper critical field $mu_{0} H_{rm c2}$ in order to investigate its superconducting (SC) properties near pair-breaking fields. In lower fields, the Knight shift and nuclear spin-lattice relaxation rate divided by temperature $1/T_1T$ abruptly decreased below the SC transition temperature $T_{rm c}(H)$, a phenomenon understood within the framework of conventional spin-singlet superconductivity. In contrast, $1/T_1T$ was enhanced just below $T_{rm c}(H)$ and exhibited a broad maximum when magnetic fields close to $mu_0H_{rm c2}(0)$ were applied parallel or perpendicular to the $c$ axis, although the Knight shift decreased just below $T_{rm c}(H)$. This enhancement of $1/T_1T$, which was recently observed in the organic superconductor $kappa$-(BEDT-TTF)$_{2}$Cu(NCS)$_{2}$, suggests the presence of high-density Andreev bound states in the inhomogeneous SC region, a hallmark of the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov phase.
The pseudogap, d-wave superconductivity and electron-boson coupling are three intertwined key ingredients in the phase diagram of the cuprates. Sr$_2$IrO$_4$ is a 5d-electron counterpart of the cuprates in which both the pseudogap and a d-wave instability have been observed. Here, we report spectroscopic evidence for the presence of the third key player in electron-doped Sr$_2$IrO$_4$: electron-boson coupling. A kink in nodal dispersion is observed with an energy scale of ~50 meV. The strength of the kink changes with doping, but the energy scale remains the same. These results provide the first noncuprate platform for exploring the relationship between the pseudogap, d-wave instability and electron-boson coupling in doped Mott insulators.
The optical properties of the new iron-based superconductor CsCa$_2$Fe$_4$As$_4$F$_2$ with $T_c sim 29$~K have been determined. In the normal state a good description of the low-frequency response is obtained with a superposition of two Drude components of which one has a very low scattering rate (narrow Drude-peak) and the other a rather large one (broad Drude-peak). Well below $T_c sim 29$~K, a pronounced gap feature is observed which involves a complete suppression of the optical conductivity below $sim$ 110~cm$^{-1}$ and thus is characteristic of a nodeless superconducting state. The optical response of the broad Drude-component can be described with a dirty-limit Mattis-Bardeen-type response with a single isotropic gap of $2Delta simeq 14$~meV. To the contrary, the response of the narrow Drude-component is in the ultra-clean-limit and its entire spectral weight is transferred to the zero-frequency $delta(omega)$ function that accounts for the loss-free response of the condensate. These observations provide clear evidence for a band-selective coexistence of clean- and dirty-limit superconductivity with nodeless gaps in CsCa$_2$Fe$_4$As$_4$F$_2$.
Recent advances in time-domain terahertz (THz) spectroscopy have unveiled that resonantly-enhanced strong THz third-harmonic generation (THG) mediated by the collective Higgs amplitude mode occurs in s-wave superconductors, where charge-density fluctuations (CDF) have also been shown to contribute to the nonlinear third-order susceptibility. It has been theoretically proposed that the nonlinear responses of Higgs and CDF exhibit essentially different polarization dependences. Here we experimentally discriminate the two contributions by polarization-resolved intense THz transmission spectroscopy for a single-crystal NbN film. The result shows that the resonant THG in the transmitted light always appears in the polarization parallel to that of the incident light with no appreciable crystal axis dependence. When we compare this with the theoretical calculation here with the BCS approximation and the dynamical mean-field theory for a model of NbN constructed from first principles, the experimental result strongly indicates that the Higgs mode rather than the CDF dominates the THG resonance in NbN. A possible mechanism for this is discussed such as the retardation effect in the phonon-mediated pairing interaction beyond BCS.