English

Spontaneous magnetization in unitary superconductors with time reversal symmetry breaking

Superconductivity 2021-09-01 v5 Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics

Abstract

We report the study of spontaneous magnetization (i.e., spin-polarization) for time-reversal symmetry (TRS)-breaking superconductors with unitary pairing potentials, in the absence of external magnetic fields or Zeeman fields. Spin-singlet (Δs\Delta_s) and spin-triplet (Δt\Delta_t) pairings can coexist in superconductors whose crystal structure lacks inversion symmetry. The TRS can be spontaneously broken once a relative phase of ±π/2\pm\pi/2 is developed, forming a TRS-breaking unitary pairing state (Δs±iΔt\Delta_s\pm i\Delta_t). We demonstrate that such unitary pairing could give rise to spontaneous spin-polarization with the help of spin-orbit coupling. Our result provides an alternative explanation to the TRS breaking, beyond the current understanding of such phenomena in the noncentrosymmetric superconductors. The experimental results of Zr3_3Ir and CaPtAs are also discussed in the view of our theory.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2102.01267,
  title  = {Spontaneous magnetization in unitary superconductors with time reversal symmetry breaking},
  author = {Lun-Hui Hu and Xuepeng Wang and T. Shang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2102.01267},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

4+5 pages, 3+1 figures, comments are welcome