Spin triplet pairing in high temperature superconductors

Various superconductivity mechanisms show that the electron pair is in spin singlet (S=0) belowTc. In contrast with these, our EPR measurements show that the electron pair is in spin triplet (S=1) rather than the spin singlet. Since an intense zero field absorption was observed in the high temperature superconductors of YBa₂Cu₃O_7–y , and YBa₂Cu₃O_7–y F₁, which violated various spin-pairing singlet superconductivity mechanisms.     

Influence of nonmagnetic impurities on superconductors with overlapping bands

The two-band model proposed by Suhl, Matthias and Walker is used to investigate the influence of nonmagnetic impurities on superconductors with overlapping bands. The use of the experimentally inferred information that both the density of states and the gap parameter of the d-band are much greater than that of the s-band simplifies the calculation of the density of states and the temperature dependence of the gap parameter. It is found that the dominating effect of the nonmagnetic impurities is to increase the energy gap of the s-band. The electronic specific heat at low temperatures is found to decrease more rapidly than the experimental data. At zero temperature the Meissner effect is unaffected by the nonmagnetic impurities, while the threshold for electromagnetic absorption is increased.     

States of local moment induced by nonmagnetic impurities in cuprate superconductors

By using a model Hamiltonian with d-wave superconductivity and competing antiferromagnetic (AF) orders, the local staggered magnetization distribution due to nonmagnetic impurities in cuprate superconductors is investigated. We show that the net moment induced by a single impurity corresponds to a local spin with S(z)=0 or 1/2 depending on the strength of the AF interaction U and the impurity scattering strength epsilon. Phase diagram of epsilon versus U for the moment formation is presented. We discuss the connection of this result with the Kondo problem. When two impurities are placed at the nearest neighboring sites, the net moment is always zero, unusually robust to parameter changes. For two neighboring strong impurities, separated by a Cu-ion site, the induced net moment has S(z)=0, 1/2, or 1.     

Influence of nonmagnetic impurities on the kondo effect

The influence of scattering by nonmagnetic impurities is studied in perturbation theory. While the finite lifetime of the electrons in intermediate states due to scattering by nonmagnetic impurities does not lead to a change in the logT-behaviour of the third-order self-energy, certain vertex-corrections give rise to an additional term which varies like 1/√T at low temperatures. Similar correction terms are found to occur in the higher order self-energy contributions. Although these terms diverge more strongly atT=0 than the logarithmic contributions they are quite small at finite temperatures since they depend on the lifetime τ of the electrons through a factor of (? _F τ)^?5/2 (? _F Fermi energy). The possibility of observing these interference effects experimentally is discussed.     

Nature of pairing in high Tc oxide superconductors

In connection with the unique structural features of the recently discovered high T_c YBa₂Cu₃O₇ and (La,Ba)₂CuO₄ we show that in such a multi-narrow-band system the opposite-spin interband pairs can function concurrently as both antiferromagnetic real pairs in x-space and Cooper pairs in k-space. So, contrary to the usually depairing Coulomb pseudotential μ¹ considered in traditional superconductors, the intra-atomic Coulomb repulsive interactions in a multiband system result in a positive contribution to Cooper pairing and enhance the conventional boson-mediated (electron-phonon and/or electron-exciton) superconductivity.     

Transition temperature of anisotropic superconductors with kondo impurities

The Matsuura-Ichinose-Nagoako (MIN) model for Kondo impurities in a superconductor has been generalized to include the effect of gap anisotropy. Analytic results are obtained for the change in the transition temperature. It is shown that, in appropriate limits, one recovers the recent results of Schachinger and Carbotte and Okabe and Nagi. The resulting formulae yield corrections to those of MIN in the BCS isotropic model.     

Effect of nonmagnetic impurities on the critical temperature of the itinerant-electron antiferromagnet

The effect of nonmagnetic impurities on the critical temperature of the itinerant-electron antiferromagnet is investigated using a Fedders-Martin model with an energy dependent density of states.It is found that nonmagnetic impurities can increase the critical temperature T_N if the density of states is changed by the impurities. This result is in agreement with the experimental results for CrRu alloys.     

Magnetic response of nonmagnetic impurities in cuprates

A theory of the local magnetic response of a nonmagnetic impurity in a doped antiferromagnet, as relevant to the normal-state in cuprates, is presented. It is based on the assumption of the overdamped collective mode in the bulk system and on the evidence that equal-time spin correlations are only weakly renormalized in the vicinity of the impurity. The theory relates the Kondo-like behavior of the local susceptibility to the anomalous temperature dependence of the bulk magnetic susceptibility.     

Tandem pairing in heavy-fermion superconductors

We consider the internal structure of a d-wave heavy-fermion superconducting condensate, showing that it necessarily contains two components condensed in tandem: pairs of quasiparticles on neighboring sites and composite pairs consisting of two electrons bound to a single local moment. These two components draw upon the antiferromagnetic and Kondo interactions to cooperatively enhance the superconducting transition temperature. This tandem condensate is electrostatically active, with an electric quadrupole moment predicted to lead to a superconducting shift in the nuclear quadrupole resonance frequency.     

Andreev bound states in high temperature superconductors

Andreev bound states at the surface of superconductors are expected for any pair potential showing a sign change in different k-directions with their spectral weight depending on the relative orientation of the surface and the pair potential. We report on the observation of Andreev bound states in high temperature superconductors (HTS) employing tunneling spectroscopy on bicrystal grain boundary Josephson junctions (GBJs). The tunneling spectra were studied as a function of temperature and applied magnetic field. The tunneling spectra of GBJ formed by YBa₂Cu₃O (YBCO), Bi₂Sr₂CaCu₂O(BSCCO), and La_1.85Sr_0.15CuO₄ (LSCO) show a pronounced zero bias conductance peak that can be interpreted in terms of Andreev bound states at zero energy that are expected at the surface of HTS having a d-wave symmetry of the order parameter. In contrast, for the most likely s-wave HTS Nd_1.85Ce_0.15CuO_4-y (NCCO) no zero bias conductance peak was observed. Applying a magnetic field results in a shift of spectral weight from zero to finite energy. This shift is found to depend nonlinearly on the applied magnetic field. Further consequences of the Andreev bound states are discussed and experimental evidence for anomalous Meissner currents is presented. Received: 17 February 1998 / Revised: 27 April 1998 / Accepted: 23 June 1998     

Symmetry classification of states in high temperature superconductors

The symmetry classification of possible singlet and also triplet states in the case of the 2-dim square lattice, and 3-dim tetragonal and orthorhombic lattices is examined. If particle-hole symmetry is present then an additional symmetry classification is possible. However in the lower symmetry crystal structures that actually occur, no distinction on symmetry grounds can be drawn between usuals-wave, extendeds-wave and some of thed-wave states.     

Cu,Pu and Fe high Tc superconductors: Spin holes in anti-ferromagnetic clusters form nonmagnetic bipolarons

The new iron based high T_c superconductors with T_c up to 55 K have stirred new interest in this field. It is consensus that the BCS mechanism is not able to explain the high T_c’s. In the following we propose that spin holes in anti-ferromagnetic clusters combine to make nonmagnetic bipolarons, which can condense and lead to superconductivity.     

Zinc impurities in d-wave superconductors

We study the two-dimensional Hubbard model with nonmagnetic Zn impurities modeled by binary diagonal disorder using quantum Monte Carlo within the dynamical cluster approximation. With increasing Zn content we find a strong suppression of d-wave superconductivity and an enhancement of antiferromagnetic spin correlations. T(c) vanishes linearly with Zn impurity concentration. The spin susceptibility changes from pseudogap to Curie-Weiss-like behavior indicating the existence of free magnetic moments in the Zn doped system. We interpret these results within the resonating-valence-bond picture.     

Theory of magnetic impurities in superconductors

The jump of the specific heat at the transition temperature is calculated for a superconductor with magnetic impurities. The calculation includes the Kondo effect and is exact within the Nagaoka-approximation.