Coulomb repulsion-induced hyperbolic pairing as a mechanism of high-T c superconductivity

The hyperbolic metric of the dispersion law (the effective mass tensor components of carriers are opposite in sign) in the vicinity of the Fermi contour in high-T _c superconducting cuprates in the case of repulsive interaction gives rise to a superconducting state characterized by the condensate of pairs with a large total momentum (hyperbolic pairing). The gain in the energy of the superconducting state over the normal state is due to the fact that a change in the kinetic energy of pairs (because of the negative light component of the effective mass) dominates over the change in the potential energy (corresponding to energy loss). The shift of the chemical potential upon the transition to the superconducting phase is substantial in this case. With increasing repulsive interaction, the superconducting gap δ_K increases and the resulting gain in energy changes to an energy loss at a certain critical value of the repulsive potential. The low temperature T _c of the superconducting transition and the large value of δ _K in this region of potential values are the reasons for the high value of the 2δ_K/T _c ratio and for the developed quantum fluctuations that are observed in underdoped cuprate superconductors.     

Coulomb blockade with dispersive interfaces

What quantity controls the Coulomb blockade oscillations if the dot-lead conductance is essentially frequency dependent? We argue that it is the conductance at the imaginary frequency given by the effective charging energy. The latter may be very different from the bare charging energy due to the interface-induced capacitance (or inductance). These observations are supported by a number of examples, considered from the weak and strong coupling (perturbation theory versus instanton calculus) perspectives.     

Magnetization of high-T c superconductors

We have tried to understand the field dependence of magnetization of high temperature superconductors in the light of phenomenological theory. Especially, the field dependence of dM/d lnB of polycrystalline Bi(2212) is understood by incorporating the overlap of vortices in the London theory.     

Coulomb blockade without potential barriers

We study transport through a strongly correlated quantum dot and show that Coulomb blockade can appear even in the presence of perfect contacts. This conclusion arises from numerical calculations of the conductance for a microscopic model of spinless fermions in an interacting chain connected to each lead via a completely open channel. The dependence of the conductance on the gate voltage shows well defined Coulomb blockade peaks which are sharpened as the interaction strength is increased. Our numerics is based on the embedding method and the DMRG algorithm. We explain the emergence of Coulomb blockade with perfect contacts by a reduction of the effective coupling matrix elements between many-body states corresponding to successive particle numbers in the interacting region. A perturbative approach, valid in the strong interaction limit, yields an analytic expression for the interaction-induced suppression of the conductance in the Coulomb blockade regime.     

基于库仑阻塞原理的多值存储器

设计了一种基于库仑阻塞原理的新型单电子多值存储器.器件包括两个多隧穿结结构和一个单电子晶体管，其中单电子晶体管起到一个静电计的作用来实现数据的读取.两个隧穿结库仑阻塞区域的大小不同使得器件具有三个稳定的存储状态.利用这个原理可以制备出多值的动态随机存储器和非挥发性的随机存储器.这种低功耗的单电子多值存储器可以实现信息的超高密度存储. 关键词： 库仑阻塞 单电子晶体管     

Dynamic properties of a Josephson junction balanced comparator with Coulomb blockade

The dynamics of a Josephson junction balanced comparator with Coulomb blockade has been analyzed. An expression for the time resolution in the case of a linearly increasing gating voltage pulse has been derived with regard to the Bloch inductance. It has been shown that the time resolution depends on the Bloch inductance of small Josephson junctions. Estimates have confirmed the feasibility of a subpicosecond time resolution for balance Josephson comparators with Coulomb blockade.     

Coulomb blockade in graphene nanoribbons

We propose that recent transport experiments revealing the existence of an energy gap in graphene nanoribbons may be understood in terms of Coulomb blockade. Electron interactions play a decisive role at the quantum dots which form due to the presence of necks arising from the roughness of the graphene edge. With the average transmission as the only fitting parameter, our theory shows good agreement with the experimental data.     

Flux diffusion in high-T c superconductors

In type-II superconductors in the flux flow (J J _c ), flux creep (J _c J _c ), and thermally activated flux flow (TAFF) (J J _c ) regimes the inductionB(r,t), averaged over several penetration depths , in general follows from a nonlinear equation of motion into which enter the nonlinear resistivities (B, J ,T) caused by flux motion and (B, J ,T) caused by other dissipative processes.J andJ are the current densities perpendicular and parallel toB,B=|B|, andT is the temperature. For flux flow and TAFF in isotropic superconductors with weak relative spatial variation ofB, this equation reduces to the diffusion equation plus a correction term which vanishes whenJ =0 (this means B××B=0) or when – = 0 (isotropic normal conductor). When this diffusion equation holds the material anisotropy may be accounted for by a tensorial . The response of a superconductor to an applied current or to a change of the applied magnetic field is considered for various geometries. Such perturbations affect only a surface layer of thickness where a shielding current flows which pulls at the flux lines; the resulting deformation of the vortex lattice diffuses into the interior until a new equilibrium or a new stationary state is reached. The a.c. response, in particular the frequency with maximum damping, depends thus on the geometry and size of the superconductor.     

Thermopower of a multilevel quantum dot coupled with leads in Coulomb blockade

We study the thermopower of a multilevel quantum dot which is coupled with the two leads. From our theoretic results, the thermopower of a multilevel quantum dot shows an oscillatory dependence on the gate voltage, which has been found in a lot of experiment data. The Fano effect of the electronic transport through the multilevel quantum dot is also shown as an obvious asymmetric line shape of the thermopower which come from the interference between the resonant and nonresonant multilevel paths of the conductive electrons. In addition, at the higher temperature, to thermopower, not conductance, it is the multilevel that is much easier to do contribution to the Fano effect.     

Numerical simulations of a high-T c -superconductive glass model

Numerical simulations for anXY-spin-glass model are presented. The connection to recent experiments on high-T _c superconductors is outlined. In particular, the glass behaviour in experiments is reproduced by a 2-D model. A phase diagram important for future experiments is also provided. A substantial gain inT _c is predicted for enhanced couplings between planes.     

Strong-coupling effects in high-T c superconductors

It is conceivable that the high-T _c superconducting perovskites are conventional electronphonon superconductors. In this case one expects significant strong-coupling effects because of the unusually high ratiok _B T _c / of the order 0.1 and greater. We use a set of reasonable models for the Eliashberg function ² F() (which takes into account available information on the phonon spectra and which fit the measuredT _c 's) and calculate strong-coupling effects in the specific heatc _s (T)/T _c , the ratio ₀/k _B T _c , the critical fieldsH _c (T) andH _c2 (T) including Pauli limiting, and other measurable quantities. Strongcoupling corrections turn out to be in the range of 0 to about 100%, depending on the quantity of interest. We discuss the perspectives of using strong-coupling effects as indicators for conventional electron-phonon superconductivity in the new materials.     

Magnetostriction of several high-T c superconductors

We report on magnetostriction measurements of superconducting and nonsuperconducting YBa₂Cu₃O_7– and of two Bi samples with the nominal compositions Bi₂CaSr₂Cu₂O _x and Bi_0.8Pb_0.2Sr_0.8CaCu_1.5O _x . Both types of high temperature superconductors show a nearly identical strongly hysteretic field dependence of the magnetostriction (MS) (l/l+(2–6)*10^–6 at 5 T and 1.5 K). In both cases the MS is a linear function of field in the region 1–5 T, which we explain by striction due to surface currents. Between 1.5 and 35 K the hysteresis of the MS decreases strongly with increasing temperature, which implies a decrease of the pinning force. The MS of quenched nonsuperconducting YBa₂Cu₃O_7– is at least two orders of magnitude smaller than that of the superconductor.     

Possible mechanism for high-T c superconductivity

Based on recent experiments and numerical simulations on the glass behaviour of the new high-T _c superconductors, a microscopic mechanism is proposed. Disorder is found to play an important role. Pairing of holes and subsequent bose condensation on an antiferromagnetic background is proposed as a basic mechanism for high-T _c superconductivity.     

Percolation with excluded small clusters and Coulomb blockade in a granular system

We consider dc-conductivity σ of a mixture of small conducting and insulating grains slightly below the percolation threshold, where finite clusters of conducting grains are characterized by a wide spectrum of sizes. The charge transport is controlled by tunneling of carriers between neighboring conducting clusters via short “links“ consisting of one insulating grain. Upon lowering temperature small clusters (up to some T-dependent size) become Coulomb blockaded, and are avoided, if possible, by relevant hopping paths. We introduce a relevant percolational problem of next-nearest-neighbors (NNN) conductivity with excluded small clusters and demonstrate (both numerically and analytically) that σ decreases as power law of the size of excluded clusters. As a physical consequence, the conductivity is a power-law function of temperature in a wide intermediate temperature range. We express the corresponding index through known critical indices of the perco lation theory and confirm this relation numerically.