English

Phase diagram of a surface superconductor in parallel magnetic field

Superconductivity 2009-11-10 v2

Abstract

Detailed theory of phase diagram of clean 2D surface superconductor in a parallel magnetic field is presented. Regular spin-orbital interaction of the Rashba type is known to produce inhomogeneous superconductive state similar to the Larkin-Ovchinnikov-Fulde-Ferrel (LOFF) state with Δ(r)cos(Qr)\Delta({\bf r})\propto \cos({\bf Qr}) at high magnetic fields, with QgμBh/vFQ \sim g\mu_B h/v_F. We consider the case of relatively strong Rashba interaction and show that at low temperatures T0.4Tc0T\leq 0.4 T_{c0} the LOFF-type state is separated from the usual homogeneous state by the first-order phase transition line. At higher temperatures new "helical" state with Δ(r)exp(iQr)\Delta({\bf r}) \propto \exp(i{\bf Qr}) intervene between uniform BCS state and LOFF-like state. One component of superfluid density tensor nsn_s vanishes on the second-order transition line between BCS state and helical state. Nonmagnetic impurities suppresses both inhomogeneous states, and eliminate them completely at Tc0τ0.11T_{c0}\tau \leq 0.11.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0304445,
  title  = {Phase diagram of a surface superconductor in parallel magnetic field},
  author = {Ol'ga V. Dimitrova and M. V. Feigel'man},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0304445},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

5 pages, 1 figure; v2: as published, minor corrections