Weakly correlated superconductors

A concept of weak correlation in superconductors is introduced, which is similar, but not equal, to weak coupling (of the Josephson type), and some consequences of the idea are briefly considered. It is shown that the dependence of critical temperature of layered superconductors on the number of layers may be explained taking into account the correlation energy, and may not be accounted for by the Josephson model (neglecting correlation).³     

Magnetic instability in strongly correlated superconductors

Recently, a new phenomenological Hamiltonian has been proposed to describe the superconducting cuprates. This so-called Gossamer Hamiltonian is an apt model for a superconductor with strong on-site Coulomb repulsion between the electrons. It is shown that at half-filling the Gossamer superconductor with strong repulsion is unstable toward an antiferromagnetic insulator. The superconducting state undergoes a quantum phase transition to an antiferromagnetic insulator as one increases the on-site Coulomb repulsion. Near the transition the Gossamer superconductor becomes spectroscopically indistinguishable from the insulator.     

Breakdown of universal transport in correlated d-wave superconductors

The prediction and observation of low-temperature universal thermal conductivity in cuprates has served as a keystone of theoretical approaches to the superconducting state, but recent measurements on underdoped samples show strong violations of this apparently fundamental property of d-wave nodal quasiparticles. Here, we show that the breakdown of universality may be understood as the consequence of disorder-induced magnetic droplets arising from enhanced antiferromagnetic correlations in the underdoped state, even as these same correlations protect the nodal density of states.     

高温超导体的核磁共振研究

文章回顾了用核磁共振技术研究高温超导体的进展,着重介绍了局域电荷分布、d波超导能隙以及赝能隙的性质.除了CuO2面上空穴密度总数,Cu和O轨道上面空穴数的分布是决定Tc的重要参数.转变温度Tc取决于自旋晶格弛豫率,奈特位移可以显示出d波配对,而d波配对使得准粒子可以从涡线中心 “漏”到外面.超导能隙函数里存在节点,这也是非磁性杂质以及晶体无序会导致Tc明显降低的原因.高温超导体零温正常态在45T的强磁场下变成“费米弧”金属态,这说明赝能隙态和超导态共存于高温超导物质中.     

Electronic structure of strongly correlated d-wave superconductors

We study the electronic structure of a strongly correlated d-wave superconducting state. Combining a renormalized mean field theory with direct calculation of matrix elements, we obtain explicit analytical results for the nodal Fermi velocity upsilon(F), the Fermi wave vector k(F), and the momentum distribution n(k) as a function of hole doping in a Gutzwiller projected d-wave superconductor. We calculate the energy dispersion E(k) and spectral weight of the Gutzwiller-Bogoliubov quasiparticles and find that the spectral weight associated with the quasiparticle excitation at the antinodal point shows a nonmonotonic behavior as a function of doping. Results are compared to angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy of the high-temperature superconductors.     

Tunneling spectra of layered strongly correlated d-wave superconductors

Tunneling conductance experiments on cuprate superconductors exhibit a large diversity of spectra that appear in different nanosized regions of inhomogeneous samples. In this Letter, we use a mean-field approach to the tt't'J model in order to address the features in these spectra that deviate from the BCS paradigm, namely, the bias sign asymmetry at high bias, the generic lack of evidence for the van Hove singularity, and the absence of coherence peaks at low dopings. We conclude that these features can be reproduced in homogeneous layered d-wave superconductors solely due to a proximate Mott insulating transition. We also establish the connection between the above tunneling spectral features and the strong renormalization of the electron dispersion around (0, pi) and (pi, 0) and the momentum space anisotropy of electronic states observed in angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy experiments.     

Nuclear magnetic resonance study of strongly correlated superconductors

This paper introduces nuclear magnetic resonance works in the strongly correlated super-conductors: heavy-Fermion, high-T _C superconductors and Sr₂RuO₄. The analyses strongly support the spin-fluctuation-mediated superconductivity model in a high-T _C superconductor.     

NMR and NQR of Cu in HTc superconductors

After a review of recent results concerning the electric field gradient, Knight shift and spin-lattice relaxation mainly in the 123 superconductors, the antiferromagnetic structure of this system and the influence of Fe-impurities are discussed. In the last part first results for the Bi based superconductors are presented.     

Relaxation dynamics in type-II superconductors with point-like and correlated disorder

We employ an elastic line model to investigate the steady-state properties and non-equilibrium relaxation kinetics of magnetic vortex lines in disordered type-II superconductors using Langevin molecular dynamics (LMD). We extract the dependence of the mean vortex line velocity and gyration radius as well as the mean-square displacement in the steady state on the driving current, and measure the vortex density and height autocorrelations in the aging regime. We study samples with either randomly distributed point-like or columnar attractive pinning centers, which allows us to distinguish the complex relaxation features of interacting flux lines subject to extended vs. uncorrelated disorder. Additionally, we find that our new LMD findings match earlier Monte Carlo (MC) simulation data well, verifying that these two microscopically quite distinct simulation methods lead to macroscopically very similar results for non-equilibrium vortex matter.     

Spin-phonon coupling in highly correlated transition-metal monoxides

We report on the optical response of the highly correlated transition-metal monoxides MnO, FeO, CoO and NiO in the far-infrared regime. The main focus is put on spin-phonon coupling effects, which are found to significantly influence the lattice dynamics in the magnetically ordered phase. Measurements have been performed in the ordered and paramagnetic state for temperatures up to 550 K. A clear splitting of the cubic mode accompanying the transition into long range magnetic order can be identified in MnO, CoO and NiO. In the case of FeO it is argued that an anisotropic phonon response seems to be very likely, though it could not be observed directly. The results are compared to recent experimental and theoretical studies in frustrated magnets, which predict the splitting of zone center phonon modes induced by a non-cubic spin-density distribution.     

NMR relaxation time around a vortex in stripe superconductors

Site-dependent NMR relaxation time T1(r) is calculated in the vortex state using the Bogoliubov-de Gennes theory, taking account of possible "field-induced stripe" states in which the magnetism arises locally around a vortex core in d-wave superconductivity. The recently observed huge enhancement T-11(r) below T(c) at a core site in Tl2Ba2CuO6 is explained. The field-induced stripe picture explains consistently other relevant STM and neutron experiments.     

Two-dimensional organic superconductors studied by NMR under pressure

The (BEDT)₂X family of layered superconductors is one of the largest among nearly 50 organic superconductors currently known. One of the advantages of the organic compounds as prototype materials for studying the mechanisms of superconductivity is their relatively high sensitivity to hydrostatic pressure. We review recent NMR studies of these compounds using NMR under liquid and gas pressure. We focus on the low temperature part of the phase diagram where the physics is controlled by electronic correlations leading to a competition between magnetism and superconductivity. This interplay between different ground states is shown by the observation of a pseudo-gap and antiferromagnetic fluctuations and can be finely tuned by the application of pressure. Using a gas pressure system gives the unique possibility of sweeping the pressure at low temperature. Recently we used this technique to study the AF-SC boundary and established the existence of a first order transition line between the superconducting and antiferromagnetic states. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

NMR relaxation and resistivity from rattling phonons in pyrochlore superconductors

We calculate the temperature dependence of the NMR relaxation rate and electrical resistivity for coupling to a local, strongly anharmonic phonon mode. We argue that the two-phonon Raman process is dominating NMR relaxation. Due to the strong anharmonicity of the phonon an unusual temperature dependence is found having a low temperature peak and becoming constant towards higher temperatures. The electrical resistivity is found to vary like T2 at low temperatures and following a square root T behavior at high temperatures. Both results are in qualitative agreement with recent observations on beta-pyrochlore oxide superconductors.     

Atomic refinement with correlated solid-state NMR restraints

The orientation data provided by solid-state NMR can provide a great deal of structural information about membrane proteins. The quality of the information provided is, however, somewhat degraded by sign degeneracies in measurements of the dipolar coupling tensor. This is reflected in the dipolar coupling penalty function used in atomic refinement, which is less capable of properly restraining atoms when dipolar sign degeneracies are present. In this report we generate simulated solid-state NMR data using a variety of procedures, including back-calculation from crystal structures of alpha-helical and beta-sheet membrane proteins. We demonstrate that a large fraction of the dipolar sign degeneracies are resolved if anisotropic dipolar coupling measurements are correlated with anisotropic chemical shift measurements, and that all sign degeneracies can be resolved if three data types are correlated. The advantages of correlating data are demonstrated with atomic refinement of two test membrane proteins. When refinement is performed using correlated dipolar couplings and chemical shifts, perturbed structures converge to conformations with a larger fraction of correct dipolar signs than when data are uncorrelated. In addition, the final structures are closer to the original unperturbed structures when correlated data are used in the refinement. Thus, refinement with correlated data leads to improved atomic structures. The software used to correlate dipolar coupling and chemical shift data and to set up energy functions and their derivatives for refinement, CNS-SS02, is available at our web site.     

Theory of superconductivity in strongly correlated materials: Application to cuprate superconductors

A microscopic theory of superconductivity in systems with strong electron correlations is considered within the Hubbard model. The Dyson equation for the matrix Green function in terms of the Hubbard operators is derived and solved in the noncrossing approximation for the self-energy. Two channels of superconducting pairing are revealed: mediated by antiferromagnetic (AFM) exchange and spin-fluctuations. It is proved that AFM exchange interaction results in pairing of all electrons in the conduction band and high T _c proportional to the Fermi energy. T _c dependence on lattice constants (or pressure) and an oxygen isotope shift of T _c are explained. The text was submitted by the author in English.     

Vortex dynamics and correlated disorder in high-Tc superconductors

We develop a theory for the vortex motion in the presence of correlated disorder in the form of twin boundaries and columnar defects. Mapping vortex trajectories onto boson world lines enables us to establish the duality of the vortex transport in systems with correlated disorder and the hopping conductivity of charged particles in 2D systems. A glassy-like dynamics of the vortex lines with zero linear resistivity and strongly nonlinear current-voltage behavior as V ∝ exp(-const/J^μ) in a Bose glass state is predicted.