Ginzburg-Landau theory for unconventional surface superconductivity in PtBi$_2$
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 . The irreducible representations and 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 and 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