Superconducting states of pure and doped graphene

We study the superconducting phases of the two-dimensional honeycomb lattice of graphene. We find two spin singlet pairing states; s wave and an exotic p+ip that is possible because of the special structure of the honeycomb lattice. At half filling, the p+ip phase is gapless and superconductivity is a hidden order. We discuss the possibility of a superconducting state in metal coated graphene.     

Theoretical studies of superconductivity in doped BaCoSO

We investigate superconductivity that may exist in the doped BaCoSO, a multi-orbital Mott insulator with a strong antiferromagnetic ground state. The superconductivity is studied in both t-J type and Hubbard type multi-orbital models by mean field approach and random phase approximation (RPA) analysis. Even if there is no C₄ rotational symmetry, it is found that the system still carries a d-wave like pairing symmetry state with gapless nodes and sign changed superconducting order parameters on Fermi surfaces. The results are largely doping insensitive. In this superconducting state, the three \({t_{{2_g}}}\) orbitals have very different superconducting form factors in momentum space. In particular, the intra-orbital pairing of the \({d_{{x^2} - {y^2}}}\) orbital has an s-wave like pairing form factor. The two methods also predict very different pairing strength on different parts of Fermi surfaces. These results suggest that BaCoSO and related materials can be a new ground to test and establish fundamental principles for unconventional high temperature superconductivity.     

Superconductivity of the Sr2Ca12Cu24O41 spin-ladder system: are the superconducting pairing and the spin-gap formation of the same origin?

Pressure-induced superconductivity in a spin-ladder cuprate Sr2Ca12Cu24O41 has not been studied on a microscopic level thus far although the superconductivity was already discovered in 1996. We have improved the high-pressure technique using a large high-quality crystal, and succeeded in studying the superconductivity using 63Cu nuclear magnetic resonance. We found that the anomalous metallic state reflecting the spin-ladder structure is realized and the superconductivity possesses an s-wave-like character in the meaning that a finite gap exists in the quasiparticle excitation: At a pressure of 3.5 GPa, we observed two excitation modes in the normal state from the relaxation rate T-11. One gives rise to an activation-type component in T-11, and the other T-linear component linking directly with the superconductivity. This gapless mode likely arises from free motion of holon-spinon bound states appearing by hole doping, and the pairing of them likely causes the superconductivity.     

Interior gap superfluidity

We propose a new state of matter in which the pairing interactions carve out a gap within the interior of a large Fermi ball, while the exterior surface remains gapless. This defines a system which contains both a superfluid and a normal Fermi liquid simultaneously, with both gapped and gapless quasiparticle excitations. The universality class of this state can be realized at weak coupling. We predict that a cold mixture of two species of fermionic atoms with different mass will exhibit this state. For electrons in appropriate solids, it would define a material that is simultaneously superconducting and metallic.     

高压下过渡金属二硫属化物的超导电性

过渡金属二硫属化物是一类典型的二维类石墨烯层状结构的材料,相比于石墨烯的全碳元素组成以及无带隙的电子结构特点,具有更丰富的元素组成、多样的微观结构和奇异的物理性质。过渡金属二硫属化物强烈的各向异性以及在催化、光伏器件和储能材料等领域的优异表现,引起了科学家们浓厚的研究兴趣。它们的层间范德瓦耳斯间隙、层间范德瓦耳斯相互作用、层间堆垛次序对压力非常敏感,易于通过压力调控其晶体结构和电子能带结构,进而发生电子基态的变化。过渡金属二硫属化物的电子基态可以是莫特绝缘体、激子绝缘体、电荷密度波、半导体、(拓扑)半金属、金属,甚至是超导体。在常压条件下,部分过渡金属二硫属化物具有超导电性。实验表明,压力可以诱导过渡金属二硫属化物非超导母体发生超导转变,或者提高超导母体的超导转变温度。文章以典型的过渡金属二硫属化物为例,概述了其在高压调控下超导电性的响应,并简要讨论产生超导电性的物理机制。     

Gapless color superconductivity

We present the dispersion relations for quasiparticle excitations about the color-flavor locked ground state of QCD at high baryon density. In the presence of condensates which pair light and strange quarks there need not be an energy gap in the quasiparticle spectrum. This raises the possibility of gapless color superconductivity, with a Meissner effect but no minimum excitation energy. Analysis within a toy model suggests that gapless color superconductivity may occur only as a metastable phase.     

Topological insulator: Spintronics and quantum computations

Topological insulators are emergent states of quantum matter that are gapped in the bulk with timereversal symmetry-preserved gapless edge/surface states, adiabatically distinct from conventional materials. By proximity to various magnets and superconductors, topological insulators show novel physics at the interfaces, which give rise to two new areas named topological spintronics and topological quantum computation. Effects in the former such as the spin torques, spin-charge conversion, topological antiferromagnetic spintronics, and skyrmions realized in topological systems will be addressed. In the latter, a superconducting pairing gap leads to a state that supports Majorana fermions states, which may provide a new path for realizing topological quantum computation. Various signatures of Majorana zero modes/edge mode in topological superconductors will be discussed. The review ends by outlooks and potential applications of topological insulators. Topological superconductors that are fabricated using topological insulators with superconductors have a full pairing gap in the bulk and gapless surface states consisting of Majorana fermions. The theory of topological superconductors is reviewed, in close analogy to the theory of topological insulators.     

Pairing isomers

The formalism for quadrupole pairing forces acting simultaneously with monopole pairing and quadrupole particle-hole forces has been worked out in the framework of BCS and RPA. The low-lying 0⁺ states are studied. Expressions for E0 and E2 transition probabilities as well as spectroscopic amplitudes for (t, p) and (p, t) reactions are given. The formalism is applied to the actinide region and it is shown that the low-lying 0⁺ states strongly populated in (p, t) but not in (t, p) reactions can be explained as pairing isomers having an appreciably smaller value of the pairing gap Δ than the ground state. This phenomenon is similar to the phenomenon of gapless superconductivity in solid state physics, i.e. the pairing isomers are formed because of the inhomogeneity of oblate and prolate levels in the vicinity of the Fermi surface.     

Fundamental constraints for the mechanism of superconductivity in cuprates

Considerable progress has been made over the last decade in understanding the phenomenological properties of the cuprate high-T_c superconductors and in producing well characterized high quality materials. Nevertheless, the pairing mechanism itself remains controversial. We establish a criterion to test theories for layered superconductors relying on a substantial interlayer contribution. The criterion is based on the ratio of the interlayer contribution to the total superfluid density, which is traced back to the inverse squared effective mass anisotropy, . can be measured rather accurately by various experimental techniques. It turns out that models relying on interlayer pairing cannot be considered as serious candidates for the mechanism of superconductivity in cuprate superconductors. Received: 26 November 1998 / Accepted: 30 November 1998     

Size quantization in planar graphene-based heterostructures: Pseudospin splitting,interface states,and excitons

A planar quantum-well device made of a gapless graphene nanoribbon with edges in contact with gapped graphene sheets is examined. The size-quantization spectrum of charge carriers in an asymmetric quantum well is shown to exhibit a pseudospin splitting. Interface states of a new type arise from the crossing of dispersion curves of gapless and gapped graphene materials. The exciton spectrum is calculated for a planar graphene quantum well. The effect of an external electric field on the exciton spectrum is analyzed.     

Influence of exchange fields in hybrid pairing superconductors II. Selfconsistent ground states

A previously investigated model of a two band superconductor with hybrid pairing and molecular fields is enlarged by exchange interactions generating those fields. The fields are calculated selfconsistently in molecular field approximation at zero temperature. They turn out to stabilise the previously found new state of gapless superconductivity and non vanishing spin polarization for a wide range of exchange couplings, in particular for zero external field.Dedicated to B. Mühlschlegel on the occasion of his 60th birthdayWork performed within the research program of Sonderforschungsbereich 125 Aachen-Jülich-Köln     

Pairing symmetry of superconducting graphene

The possibility of intrinsic superconductivity in alkali-coated graphene monolayers has been recently suggested theoretically. Here, we derive the possible pairing symmetries of a carbon honeycomb lattice and discuss their phase diagram. We also evaluate the superconducting local density of states (LDOS) around an isolated impurity. This is directly related to scanning tunneling microscopy experiments, and may evidence the occurrence of unconventional superconductivity in graphene.     

Breached pairing superfluidity: possible realization in QCD

We propose a wide universality class of gapless superfluids, and analyze a limit that might be realized in quark matter at intermediate densities. In the breached pairing color superconducting phase heavy s quarks, with a small Fermi surface, pair with light u or d quarks. The ground state has a superfluid and a normal Fermi component simultaneously. We expect a second-order phase transition, as a function of increasing density, from the breached pairing phase to the conventional color-flavor locked phase.     

Quantum spin Hall effect in graphene

We study the effects of spin orbit interactions on the low energy electronic structure of a single plane of graphene. We find that in an experimentally accessible low temperature regime the symmetry allowed spin orbit potential converts graphene from an ideal two-dimensional semimetallic state to a quantum spin Hall insulator. This novel electronic state of matter is gapped in the bulk and supports the transport of spin and charge in gapless edge states that propagate at the sample boundaries. The edge states are nonchiral, but they are insensitive to disorder because their directionality is correlated with spin. The spin and charge conductances in these edge states are calculated and the effects of temperature, chemical potential, Rashba coupling, disorder, and symmetry breaking fields are discussed.     

Small-q phonon-mediated superconductivity in organic kappa-BEDT-TTF compounds

We propose a new picture for superconductivity in kappa-(BEDT-TTF)2X salts arguing that small- q electron-phonon scattering dominates the pairing. We reproduce the distinct X-shaped d-wave gap reported recently by magneto-optic measurements and we argue that the softness of the momentum structure of the gap and the near degeneracy of s- and d-wave gap states may be at the origin of the experimental controversy about the gap symmetry. We show that a magnetic field applied parallel to the planes may induce extended gapless regions on the Fermi surface accounting for the experimental signatures of a Fulde-Ferrel-Larkin-Ovchinikov state and it may induce gap symmetry transitions as well.     

二维材料及其异质结的声子物理研究

声子是固体最重要的元激发之一,是理解材料摩尔热容、德拜温度以及热膨胀系数等热力学性质的基础,同时电声子相互作用也决定了固体的电导和超导等特性。拉曼光谱是表征固体声子物理的重要实验手段,不仅能表征材料的结构和质量,还能提供材料声子性质、电子能带结构、电声耦合等信息。文章将拉曼光谱应用于二维材料及其范德瓦尔斯异质结的声子物理研究。先简单介绍二维材料的层间振动声子模式和层内振动声子模式,其中层间振动声子模式的频率可用线性链模型来计算,而强度则可用层间键极化率模型来解释;同类层内振动声子模式的Davydov劈裂峰之间的频率差异可用范德瓦尔斯模型拟合。随后,将这些模型推广到二维范德瓦尔斯异质结中,以转角多层石墨烯、MoS₂/石墨烯和hBN/WS₂为例介绍了范德瓦尔斯异质结的声子谱,阐述如何应用线性链模型和经典键极化率模型计算层间振动模的频率和强度,并由此给出二维范德瓦尔斯异质结的界面耦合强度和各层间呼吸模的电声耦合强度等重要参数。     

Chiral universality class of normal-superconducting and exciton condensation transitions on surface of topological insulator

New two-dimensional systems such as the surfaces of topological insulators (TIs) and graphene offer the possibility of experimentally investigating situations considered exotic just a decade ago. These situations include the quantum phase transition of the chiral type in electronic systems with a relativistic spectrum. Phonon-mediated (conventional) pairing in the Dirac semimetal appearing on the surface of a TI causes a transition into a chiral superconducting state, and exciton condensation in these gapless systems has long been envisioned in the physics of narrow-band semiconductors. Starting from the microscopic Dirac Hamiltonian with local attraction or repulsion, the Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer type of Gaussian approximation is developed in the framework of functional integrals. It is shown that owing to an ultrarelativistic dispersion relation, there is a quantum critical point governing the zero-temperature transition to a superconducting state or the exciton condensed state. Quantum transitions having critical exponents differ greatly from conventional ones and belong to the chiral universality class. We discuss the application of these results to recent experiments in which surface superconductivity was found in TIs and estimate the feasibility of phonon pairing.     

Breached superfluidity via p-wave coupling

Anisotropic pairing between fermion species with different Fermi momenta opens two-dimensional areas of gapless excitations, thus producing a spatially homogeneous state with coexisting superfluid and normal fluids. This breached pairing state is stable and robust for arbitrarily small mismatch and weak p-wave coupling.     

Luther-Emery phase and atomic-density waves in a trapped fermion gas

The Luther-Emery liquid is a state of matter that is predicted to occur in one-dimensional systems of interacting fermions and is characterized by a gapless charge spectrum and a gapped spin spectrum. In this Letter we discuss a realization of the Luther-Emery phase in a trapped cold-atom gas. We study by means of the density-matrix renormalization-group technique a two-component atomic Fermi gas with attractive interactions subject to parabolic trapping inside an optical lattice. We demonstrate how this system exhibits compound phases characterized by the coexistence of spin pairing and atomic-density waves. A smooth crossover occurs with increasing magnitude of the atom-atom attraction to a state in which tightly bound spin-singlet dimers occupy the center of the trap. The existence of atomic-density waves could be detected in the elastic contribution to the light-scattering diffraction pattern.