Modified Transition Temperature Equation for Superconductors

We present the replacement and modification of the Debye temperature θD by the average phonon frequency （ω） in the Rowell [Solid State Commun. 19 （1976） 1131] linear transition-temperature equation for superconducting materials. We not only improve Rowell＇s results but also describe the experimental results accurately and consistently for the various superconducting systems which cover the entire range of λ between 0.72 and 2.59. The proposed linear equation of the transition temperature Tc is found to be better and more accurate than those of dain and Kachhava [Can. d. Phys. 58 （1980） 1614].     

Eliashberg theory for disordered superconductors. I. Tunneling into three-dimensional systems

We consider the effect of changes in the Coulomb interaction due to the diffusive nature of propagation of the electron density fluctuations in three dimensional weakly disordered strong coupling superconductor on the low temperature tunneling density of states. Our results are completely consistent with the experimental finding of a negligible Coulomb effect in disordered A-15Nb–Sn.     

New multiple histogram method for studying phase transitions

For temperature zero the effects of disorder for interacting bosons are considered. The disorder induced superfluid-insulator transition in thed-dimensional disordered Bogoliubov model is discussed. Results for a short-range and a long-range random potential are given. For short-range disorder we argue that ford<4 arbitrarily small disorder localizes the Bose condensate for vanishing interaction potential. Ford>4 a certain strength of the disorder potential is necessary in order to localize the condensate. For the three-dimensional Bogoliubov model our results are in agreement with a recent calculation. We compare our theoretical predictions with numerical experiments for a disordered boson Hubbard model.     

Properties of electrons near a Van Hove singularity

The Fermi surface of most hole-doped cuprates is close to a Van Hove singularity at the M point. A two-dimensional electronic system, whose Fermi surface is close to a Van Hove singularity, shows a variety of weak coupling instabilities. It is a convenient model to study the interplay between antiferromagnetism and anisotropic superconductivity. The renormalization group approach is reviewed with emphasis on the underlying physical processes. General properties of the phase diagram and possible deformations of the Fermi surface due to the Van Hove proximity are described.     

A Note on the Proof of Magnetic Flux Quantization from ODLRO

It is noticed that the excellent proof of the connection of magnetic flux quantization and off-diagonal long range order (ODLRO) presented recently by Nieh, Su and Zhao suffers from an imperfection, namely, the f-factors in the case of finite translation do not satisfy f(a)f(b)=f(a+b), which was employed in the proof. A corrected proof is proposed to remedy this point.     

Oxygen dependence of the fermi-level and electron-phonon coupling constant in YBa2Cu3Ox films

We present a detailed investigation of the dynamics of laser-excited carriers in YBa₂Cu₃O_x thin films with various oxygen contents x. We observe a Fermi level shift due to oxygen reduction and determine the energy gap between the Fermi level and the upper Hubbard band. The electron-phonon coupling constant is determined as a function of transition temperature.     

Role of surface Cooper pair interactions on critical temperature of ultra thin film superconductors

The superconductivity mechanism of Pb thin film on a Si substrate in the weak interaction regime is investigated. A discrete Fermi surface is constructed depend on the film thickness and electron density and crystallographic orientation. We consider two types of Cooper pair interactions, Cooper pair interaction at thin film surfaces and Cooper pair in the thin film volume. We have chosen the surface Cooper pair interaction, of ultra thin films superconductor proportional to the inverse of thin film thickness, while the volume Cooper pair interaction has been considered as a constant. By these assumptions, we have found oscillation feature of critical temperature Tc and energy gap Δ in terms of thin film thickness similar to the experimental results for Pb/Si(111) thin film superconductor. However, by increasing number of Pb layers, the thin film Tc goes to bulk Tc. In contrast to the previous claimed constant value for the Δb(T=0)/kBTc in bulk, we have found oscillation of this parameter in terms of thin film thickness similar to the Tc oscillation.     

The ground state and the thermodynamics of an extended BCS model of superconductivity

The thermodynamics of an extended BCS model of superconductivity is investigated. A physical system is described by a Hamiltonian containing the BCS interaction and an attractive four-fermion interaction. The four-fermion potential is caused by attractions between Cooper pairs mediated by the phonon field. The weakness of this potential allows the use of perturbation theory. The perturbation expansion was restricted to the first order because in the ground state the second order terms are not larger than 0.5 percent of first order correction for parameters used for calculations. The BCS Hamiltonian is an unperturbed one. The ground state and the thermal properties are examined. As a result the jump in the specific heat is higher than that in the BCS case. Moreover, the squared critical field is larger than the corresponding one in the BCS theory. Additionally, we show connections with the Bogolyubov's mean field approach used earlier in order to investigate general physical consequences of the model.     

Solubility of RE elements into Ba−Cu−O melts and the enthalpy of dissolution

The liquidus compositions of Y, Sm, Gd, Dy and Yb for a melt with a Ba to Cu ratio of 3 to 5 has been investigated by a) dipping thermally equilibrated (held in the furnace for at least 10 min) MgO single crystals into the melt and analyzing the melt stuck to the MgO by ICP; b) dipping a relatively cool not thermally equilibrated Al₂O₃ polycrystalline rod into the melt (i.e. effective quenching) and analyzing the melt stuck to the rod by ICP. The measurements have been made in the temperature range from approximately 950° C up to about 1300° C. Following thermodynamic calculations, expressions for the liquidus lines are derived and the enthalpy of dissolution for the various RE123 and RE211 are calculated to be nearly the same for the same melt composition. Nevertheless a small increase of the enthalpy of dissolution with increasing peritetic temperature could be detected.     

Third-order phase transition and superconductivity in thin films

We have found a new mean field solution in the BCS theory of superconductivity. This unconventional solution indicates the existence of superconducting phase transitions of third order in thin films, or in bulk matter with a layered structure. The critical temperature increases with decreasing thickness of the layer, and does not exhibit the isotope effect. The electronic specific heat is a continuous function of temperature with a discontinuity in its derivative.     

Effects of competing orders and quantum phase fluctuations on the low-energy excitations and pseudogap phenomena of cuprate superconductors

We investigate the low-energy quasiparticle excitation spectra of cuprate superconductors by incorporating both superconductivity (SC) and competing orders (CO) in the bare Green’s function and quantum phase fluctuations in the proper self-energy. Our approach provides consistent explanations for various empirical observations, including the excess subgap quasiparticle density of states, “dichotomy” in the momentum-dependent quasiparticle coherence and the temperature-dependent gap evolution, and the presence (absence) of the low-energy pseudogap in hole- (electron-) type cuprates depending on the relative scale of the CO and SC energy gaps.     

The superconducting gap and an unidentified 110–190 K phase of YBa2Cu3O7 observed by far-infrared ellipsometry

We have measured the complex dielectric function of pure and Fe-doped YBa₂Cu₃O₇ ceramics, between 10 and 150 cm^–1 and 20 and 300 K, with a far-infrared, rotating-analyzer laser ellipsometer. The superconducting phase transition and the gap energy are clearly observable. The undoped ceramic exhibits remarkable dielectric hysteresis between 110 K and 190 K. This points to a still unidentified phase which we observe to be sensitive to a weak magnetic field.     

Evidence for a two-band behavior of MgB2 from point-contact and tunneling spectroscopy

The break-junction tunneling has been systematically investigated in MgB₂. Two types of the break-junction contacts have been exploited on the same samples, which demonstrated tunnel contact like (SIS) and point contact like (SnS) behavior. Both of them have shown the existence of the two distinct energy gaps. We have also observed peculiarities on the I(V)- characteristics related to Leggett's collective mode assisted tunneling.     

Antiferromagnetism and superconductivity in a model with extended pairing interactions

The competition between antiferromagnetism and the d + id superconducting state is studied in a model with near and next near neighbour interactions in the absence of any on-site repulsion. A mean field study shows that it is possible to have simultaneous occurrence of an antiferromagnetic and a singlet d + id superconducting state in this model. In addition, such a coexistence generates a triplet d + id superconducting order parameter with centre of mass momentum Q = (π,π) dynamically having the same orbital symmetry as the singlet superconductor. Inclusion of next nearest neighbour hopping in the band stabilises the d_xy superconducting state away from half filling, the topology of the phase diagram, though, remains similar to the near neighbour model. In view of the very recent observation of a broad region of coexistence of antiferromagnetic and unconventional superconducting states in organic superconductors, the possibility of observation of the triplet state has been outlined. Received 30 November 2000 and Received in final form 27 March 2001     

Superconductivity and topological Fermi surface transitions in electron-doped cuprates near optimal doping

We discuss evolution of the Fermi surface (FS) topology with doping in electron-doped cuprates within the framework of a one-band Hubbard Hamiltonian, where antiferromagnetism and superconductivity are assumed to coexist in a uniform phase. In the lightly doped insulator, the FS consists of electron pockets around the (π,0) points. The first change in the FS topology occurs in the optimally doped region when an additional hole pocket appears at the nodal point. The second change in topology takes place in the overdoped regime (∼18%) where antiferromagnetism disappears and a large (π,π)-centered metallic FS is formed. Evidence for these two topological transitions is found in recent Hall effect and penetration depth experiments on Pr_2-xCe_xCuO_4-δ (PCCO) and with a number of spectroscopic measurements on Nd_2-xCe_xCuO_4-δ (NCCO).     

Transition to Fulde-Ferrel-Larkin-Ovchinnikov phases near the tricritical point: an analytical study

We explore analytically the nature of the transition to the Fulde-Ferrel-Larkin-Ovchinnikov superfluid phases in the vicinity of the tricritical point, where these phases begin to appear. We make use of an expansion of the free energy up to an overall sixth order, both in order parameter amplitude and in wavevector. We first explore the minimization of this free energy within a subspace, made of arbitrary superpositions of plane waves with wavevectors of different orientations but same modulus. We show that the standard second order FFLO phase transition is unstable and that a first order transition occurs at higher temperature. Within this subspace we prove that it is favorable to have a real order parameter and that, among these states, those with the smallest number of plane waves are preferred. This leads to an order parameter with a cos( ^. ) dependence, in agreement with preceding work. Finally we show that the order parameter at the transition is only very slightly modified by higher harmonics contributions when the constraint of working within the above subspace is released. Received 20 February 2002 / Received in final form 4 June 2002 Published online 13 August 2002     

Thermal and quantum fluctuations induced additional gap in single-particle spectrum of d-p model

The possibility of thermal and quantum fluctuations induced attractive interaction leading to a pairing gap Δ_tq in the single-particle spectrum of d-p model in the limit of a large N of fermion flavor is investigated analytically. This is an anomalous pairing gap in addition to the one with d-wave symmetry originating from partially screened, inter-site coulomb interaction. The motivation was to search for a hierarchy of multiple many-body interaction scales in high-T_c superconductor as suggested by recent experimental findings. The pairing gap anisotropy stems from more than one source, namely, nearest neighbor hoppings and the p-d hybridization, but not the coupling of the effective interaction. The temperature at which Δ_tq vanishes may be driven to zero by using a tuning parameter to have access to quantum criticality (QC) only when N?1. For the physical case N=2, the usual coherent quasi-particle feature surfaces in the spectral weight everywhere in the momentum below the pairing gap Δ_tq. Thus it appears that the reduction in spin degeneracy has the effect of masking quantum criticality.     

Phenomenological theory of the s-wave state in superconductors without an inversion center

In materials without an inversion center of symmetry the spin degeneracy of the conducting band is lifted by an antisymmetric spin orbit coupling (ASOC). Under such circumstances, spin and parity cannot be separately used to classify the Cooper pairing states. Consequently, the superconducting order parameter is generally a mixture of spin singlet and triplet pairing states. In this paper we investigate the structure of the order parameter and its response to disorder for the most symmetric pairing state (A₁). Using the example of the heavy Fermion superconductor CePt₃Si, we determine characteristic properties of the superconducting instability. Depending on the type of the pairing interaction, the gap function is characterized by the presence of line nodes. We show that this line nodes move in general upon temperature. Such nodes would be essential to explain recent low-temperature data of thermodynamic quantities such as the NMR-T₁ ^-1, London penetration depth, and heat conductance. Moreover, we study the effect of (non-magnetic) impurity on the superconducting state.     

Spontaneous symmetry breaking approach to La2CuO4 properties: Hints for matching the Mott and Slater pictures

Special solutions of the Hartree-Fock (HF) problem for Coulomb interacting electrons described by a simple model of the Cu-O planes in La₂CuO₄ are presented. One of the mean field states obtained, is able to predict some of the most interesting properties of this material, such as its insulator character and the antiferromagnetic order. The natural appearance of pseudogaps in some states of this material is also indicated by another of the HF states obtained. These surprising results follow after eliminating spin and crystal symmetry restrictions usually imposed on the single particle HF orbitals, by employing the rotational invariant formulation of the HF scheme originally introduced by Dirac. Therefore, it is exemplified here, how up to know considered strong correlation effects, can be described by improving the HF solution of the considered system. In other words, it has been argued, that defining correlation effects as the ones shown by the system and not predicted by the HF best (lowest energy) solution, allows to explain important, up to know considered as strong correlation properties, as simple mean field ones. The discussion also helps to clarify the role of the antiferromagnetism and pseudogaps in the physical properties of the HTSC materials and indicates a promising way to start conciliating the Mott and Slater pictures in the physics of the transition metal oxides and other strongly correlated electron systems.