Evidence for surface Andreev bound states in cuprate superconductors from penetration depth measurements

Tunneling and theoretical studies have suggested that Andreev bound states form at certain surfaces of unconventional superconductors. Through studies of the temperature and field dependence of the in-plane magnetic penetration depth lambda(ab) at low temperature, we have found strong evidence for the presence of these states in clean single crystal YBCO and BSCCO. Crystals cut to expose (110) surfaces show a strong upturn in lambda(ab) at around 7 K, when the field is oriented along the c axis. In YBCO this upturn is completely suppressed by a field of approximately 0.1 T.     

Remarks on the order parameter of the cuprate high temperature superconductors

A large body of spectroscopic data on the cuprate high temperature superconductors (CHTSC) is reviewed in order to determine their order parameter. ASJ, INS, B_2g Raman spectra, optical data, NIS “dips”, ARPES “dips” and ARPES “kinks” all show the same excitation energy (40 meV for OP95 systems), proportional to the superconducting transition temperature, and it is therefore identified with the order parameter.     

超导体磁场穿透深度测量中的数据分析问题

讨论了目前在超导体磁场穿透深度λ测量中常用的几种数据分析方法.着重指出对于那些只能测量λ随温度的变化值Δλ(T),而无法测量其绝对值的实验而言,一种合适的数据分析方法对于我们从实验中得出正确的结论尤其重要.而微分归一法将有效地克服目前此类实验中常用数据处理方法的不足,从而实现理论与实验间的无参量比较. 关键词： 超导体 磁场穿透深度     

Tunneling spectroscopy and order parameter symmetry of hole- and electron-doped cuprate superconductors

In tunneling spectroscopy of superconductors the density of states close to the surface or the interface to an insulating tunneling barrier is probed. For d-wave superconductors the particle–hole coherence results in interesting new phenomena at surfaces such as the formation of bound surface states at the Fermi level by Andreev reflection due to a sign change of the order parameter field in different k -directions. The probing of these states represents a phase-sensitive experiment allowing the determination of the order parameter symmetry in superconductors. We summarize the present experimental status with respect to the study of high-temperature superconductors (HTS). We discuss theoretically predicted consequences of a dominating d-wave order parameter in the hole-doped HTS on their tunneling spectra as well as on the physics of high-temperature superconductor Josephson junctions. A comparison of the tunneling spectra obtained for hole- and electron-doped HTS leads to the conclusion that the former have a d-wave, whereas the latter most likely have an anisotropic s-wave order parameter. We also address some unsettled questions related to the presence of a state with broken time-reversal symmetry at surfaces and interfaces of d-wave HTS and discuss specific features of d-wave tunnel junctions that have been predicted theoretically but still not been confirmed in experiments.     

Methods of determining the magnetic penetration depth of high-κ superconductors fromμ + SR measurementsSR measurements

This paper explores several different methods of determining the magnetic penetration depth of high-κ superconductors from transverse field muon spin rotation (TFμ ⁺ SR) measurements. The methods include fitting the theoretical magnetic field distribution directly to the distribution of muon precession frequencies and calculating the penetration depth from the second or third moments of the field distribution. These three methods are discussed critically in the light of experimental noise and the effect of the superconductor's flux line lattice being distorted.     

Doping dependence of charge order in electron-doped cuprate superconductors

Abstract

In the recent studies of the unconventional physics in cuprate superconductors, one of the central issues is the interplay between charge order and superconductivity. Here the mechanism of the charge-order formation in the electron-doped cuprate superconductors is investigated based on the t-J model. The experimentally observed momentum dependence of the electron quasiparticle scattering rate is qualitatively reproduced, where the scattering rate is highly anisotropic in momentum space, and is intriguingly related to the charge-order gap. Although the scattering strength appears to be weakest at the hot spots, the scattering in the antinodal region is stronger than that in the nodal region, which leads to the original electron Fermi surface is broken up into the Fermi pockets and their coexistence with the Fermi arcs located around the nodal region. In particular, this electron Fermi surface instability drives the charge-order correlation, with the charge-order wave vector that matches well with the wave vector connecting the hot spots, as the charge-order correlation in the hole-doped counterparts. However, in a striking contrast to the hole-doped case, the charge-order wave vector in the electron-doped side increases in magnitude with the electron doping. The theory also shows the existence of a quantitative link between the single-electron fermiology and the collective response of the electron density.     

Muon-spin-rotation measurements of the penetration depth of the infinite-layer electron-doped Sr0.9La0.1CuO2 cuprate superconductor

Muon-spin-rotation (muSR) measurements of the in-plane penetration depth lambda(ab) have been performed in the infinite-layer electron-doped Sr0.9La0.1CuO2 high-T(c) superconductor (HTS). Absence of the magnetic rare-earth ions in this compound allowed us to measure for the first time the absolute value of lambda(ab)(0) in electron-doped HTSs using muSR. We found lambda(ab)(0)=116(2) nm. The zero-temperature depolarization rate sigma(0) proportional, variant 1/lambda(2)(ab)(0)=4.6(1) micros(-1) is more than 4 times higher than expected from the Uemura line. Therefore, this electron-doped HTS does not follow the Uemura relation found for hole-doped HTSs.     

Evidence for line nodes in the superconducting energy gap of noncentrosymmetric CePt3Si from magnetic penetration depth measurements

We report measurements of the magnetic penetration depth lambda(T) in high-quality CePt3Si samples down to 0.049 K. We observe a linear temperature dependence below T approximately equal to 0.16Tc, which is interpreted as evidence for line nodes in the energy gap of the low-temperature phase of this material. A kink in lambda(T) at about 0.53 K may be associated with the second superconducting transition recently reported. The results are discussed in terms of the symmetry of the superconducting order parameter.     

Nodal quasiparticles and the onset of spin-density-wave order in cuprate superconductors

We present a theory for the onset of spin-density-wave order in the superconducting ground state of the cuprates. We compute the scaling dimensions of allowed perturbations of a "relativistic" fixed point with O4 x O(3) symmetry, including those associated with the fermionic nodal Bogoliubov quasiparticles. Analyses of up to six loops show that all perturbations with square lattice symmetry are likely irrelevant. We demonstrate that the fermion spectral functions are primarily damped by the coupling to fluctuations of a composite field with Ising nematic order. A number of other experimental implications are also discussed.     

Low temperature penetration depth of strongly coupled superconductors

We have made in the clean limit a systematic exploration within strong coupling theory of the low temperature dependence of the London penetration depth for isotropic superconductors. We have found that strong coupling effects can reasonably simulate a power law dependence for an important range of parameters characterizing the boson spectrum responsible for pairing. Sometimes the precision is excellent. In such cases it would be quite difficult to distinguish experimentally between a pure power law and the strong coupling result. The physical origin of this temperature dependence is the quasi elastic scattering of electrons by low frequency bosons. Rather wide boson spectra are required in order to have these low frequency bosons at low temperature and a fairly strong coupling is necessary for their scattering to be effective. Laboratoire associé au Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique et aux Universités Paris 6 et Paris 7     

Coherence length and penetration depth of dirty superconductors

The present paper is concerned with the properties of non-magnetic superconducting alloys, in the vicinity of the transition point. It is shown that to a good approximation the coefficients of the appropriate Landau-Ginsburg equation can be computed at all concentrations, by making use of simple sum rules. The final results depend only on the residual resistivity of the alloy in the normal state.     

Evidence for nodal quasiparticles in electron-doped cuprates from penetration depth measurements

The in-plane magnetic penetration depth, lambda(T), was measured down to 0.4 K in single crystals of electron-doped superconductors, Pr(1.85)Ce(0.15)CuO(4-delta) (PCCO) and Nd(1.85)Ce(0.15)CuO(4-delta) (NCCO). In PCCO, the superfluid density varies as T2 from 0.025 up to roughly 0.3T/T(c) suggestive of a d-wave state with impurities. In NCCO, lambda(T) shows a pronounced upturn for T<4 K due to the paramagnetic contribution of Nd3+ ions. Fits to an s-wave order parameter over the standard BCS range (T/T(c) = 0.32) limit any gap to less than Delta(min)(0)/T(c) = 0.57 in NCCO. For PCCO, the absence of paramagnetism permits a lower temperature fit and yields an upper limit of Delta(min)(0)/T(c) = 0.2.     

On the penetration depth of a strong field into superconductors

The field dependence of the magnetic penetration depth over the entire range of stability and metastability of the Meissner state was determined within the framework of the Ginzburg-Landau theory. A simple interpolation formula is suggested.     

Magnetism and disorder effects on muon spin rotation measurements of the magnetic penetration depth in iron-arsenic superconductors

It is shown that attempts to accurately deduce the magnetic penetration depth λ of overdoped BaFe(1.82)Co(0.18)As? single crystals by transverse-field muon spin rotation (TF μSR) are thwarted by field-induced magnetic order and strong vortex-lattice disorder. We explain how substantial deviations from the magnetic field distribution of a nearly perfect vortex lattice by one or both of these factors is also significant for other iron-arsenic superconductors, and this introduces considerable uncertainty in the values of λ obtained by TF μSR.     

Observation of the nonlinear meissner effect in YBCO thin films: evidence for a D-wave order parameter in the bulk of the cuprate superconductors

We present experimental evidence for the observation of the nonlinear Meissner effect in high-quality epitaxial yttrium barium copper oxide thin films by measuring their intermodulation distortion at microwave frequencies versus temperature. Most of the films measured show a characteristic increase in nonlinearity at low temperatures as predicted by the nonlinear Meissner effect. We could measure the nonlinear Meissner effect because intermodulation distortion measurements are an extremely sensitive method that can detect changes in the penetration depth of the order of 1 part in 10(5).     

Anomalies in the surface impedance penetration depth in ferromagnetic superconductors

We have investigated the surface impedance penetration depth, Λ, of ErRh₄B₄ and Er_0.5Ho_0.5Rh₄B₄ both experimentally and theoretically. For ErRh₄B₄, owing to the critical spin fluctuations just above T_s ( > T_c2), the critical temperature at which surface ferromagnetism appears, Λ^?1 decreases smoothly as T decreases toward T_s. For Er_0.5Ho_0.5Rh₄B₄, the decrease in Λ^?1 owing to spin fluctuations for T ? T_c2 is very small, and Λ^?1 decreases abruptly at T_c2. Theoretical values of Λ^?1 are in good agreement with the data.