English

Ginzburg-Landau theory for unconventional surface superconductivity in PtBi$_2$

Superconductivity 2025-10-31 v2

Abstract

Recent experimental evidence suggests the presence of an unconventional, nodal surface-su\-per\-con\-duc\-ting state in trigonal PtBi\textsubscript{2}. We construct a Ginzburg--Landau theory for the three superconducting order parameters, which correspond to the three irreducible representations of the point group C3vC_{3v}. The irreducible representations A1A_1 and A2A_2 are the most likely. We develop a systematic method to determine the symmetry-allowed terms and apply it to derive all terms up to fourth order in the three order parameters. The Ginzburg--Landau functional also includes coupling to the magnetic field. The functional is employed to determine the effect of an applied uniform magnetic field on the nodal structure for A1A_1 and A2A_2 pairing. The results facilitate clear-cut experimental differentiation between these symmetries. We also predict field-induced helical superconductivity.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2507.02415,
  title  = {Ginzburg-Landau theory for unconventional surface superconductivity in PtBi$_2$},
  author = {Harald Waje and Fabian Jakubczyk and Jeroen van den Brink and Carsten Timm},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2507.02415},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

12 pages, 1 figure; minor update