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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Surface Cooper-Pair Spin Waves in Triplet Superconductors

Here, we study the electrodynamics of spin triplet superconductors including dipolar interactions, which give rise to an interplay between the collective spin dynamics of the condensate and orbital Meissner screening currents. Within this theory, we identify a class of spin waves that originate from the coupled dynamics of the spin-symmetry breaking triplet order parameter and the electromagnetic field. In particular, we study magnetostatic spin wave modes that are localized to the sample surface. We show that these surface modes can be excited and detected using experimental techniques such as microwave spin wave resonance spectroscopy or nitrogen-vacancy magnetometry, and propose that the detection of these modes offers a means for the identification of spin triplet superconductivity.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2024

Quest for Cooper Pair Transfer in Heavy-Ion Reactions: The 206 Pb + 118 Sn Case

In this Letter we report on effects of nucleon-nucleon correlations probed in nucleon transfer reactions with heavy ions. We measured with high efficiency and resolution a complete set of observables for neutron transfer channels in the ²⁰⁶Pb + ¹¹⁸Sn system employing a large solid angle magnetic spectrometer, which allowed us to study a wide range of internuclear distances via a detailed excitation function. The coupled channel theory, based on an independent particle transfer mechanism, follows the experimental transfer probabilities for one- and two-neutron pick-up and stripping channels. The experimental two-neutron transfer cross sections indicate that in reactions between pair-vibrational (closed shell) and pair-rotational (open shell) nuclei, correlations manifest via pair-addition and pair-removal modes, which constitute one of the elementary modes of excitations in nuclei.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Discovery of segmented Fermi surface induced by Cooper pair momentum

Imaging a peculiar Fermi surface Running a current through a superconductor can cause the superconducting gap to close on a section of the Fermi surface. However, observing this segmented Fermi surface directly is tricky. To do so, Zhu et al . worked with a thin film of the topological insulator bismuth telluride placed on top of superconducting niobium diselenide. A small applied magnetic field caused a screening current, which in turn led to a segmented Fermi surface in the topological insulator layer. Using a scanning tunneling microscope, the researchers were able to map out this Fermi surface. —JS

Science & Technology - Other Topics↗
DOE OSTI2023

Bogoliubov quasiparticle on the gossamer Fermi surface in electron-doped cuprates

Electron-doped cuprates consistently exhibit strong antiferromagnetic correlations, leading to the prevalent belief that antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations mediate Cooper pairing in these unconventional superconductors. However, early investigations showed that although antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations create the largest pseudogap at hot spots in momentum space, the superconducting gap is also maximized at these locations. This presented a paradox for spin-fluctuation-mediated pairing: Cooper pairing is strongest at momenta where the normal-state low-energy spectral weight is most suppressed. Here we investigate this paradox and find evidence that a gossamer—meaning very faint—Fermi surface can provide an explanation for these observations. We study Nd 2–x Ce x CuO 4 using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and directly observe the Bogoliubov quasiparticles. First, we resolve the previously observed reconstructed main band and the states gapped by the antiferromagnetic pseudogap around the hot spots. Within the antiferromagnetic pseudogap, we also observe gossamer states with distinct dispersion, from which coherence peaks of Bogoliubov quasiparticles emerge below the superconducting critical temperature. Moreover, the direct observation of a Bogoliubov quasiparticle permits an accurate determination of the superconducting gap, yielding a maximum value an order of magnitude smaller than the pseudogap, establishing the distinct nature of these two gaps. Here we propose that orientation fluctuations in the antiferromagnetic order parameter are responsible for the gossamer states.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer pairing of composite fermions

Topological pairing of composite fermions has led to remarkable ideas, such as excitations obeying non-Abelian braid statistics and topological quantum computation. Here, we construct a p-wave paired Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) wave function for composite fermions in the torus geometry, which is a convenient geometry for formulating momentum space pairing as well as for revealing the underlying composite-fermion Fermi sea. Following the standard BCS approach, we minimize the Coulomb interaction energy at half filling in the lowest and the second Landau levels, which correspond to filling factors ν = 1/2 and ν = 5/2 in GaAs quantum wells, by optimizing two variational parameters that are analogous to the gap and the Debye cut-off energy of the BCS theory. Our results show no evidence for pairing at ν = 1/2 but a clear evidence for pairing at ν = 5/2. To a good approximation, the highest overlap between the exact Coulomb ground state at ν = 5/2 and the BCS state is obtained for parameters that minimize the energy of the latter, thereby providing support for the physics of composite-fermion pairing as the mechanism for the 5/2 fractional quantum Hall effect. We discuss the issue of modular covariance of the composite-fermion BCS wave function, and calculate its Hall viscosity and pair correlation function. By similar methods, we look for but do not find an instability to s-wave pairing for a spin-singlet composite-fermion Fermi sea at half-filled lowest Landau level in a system where the Zeeman splitting has been set to zero.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2021

Unconventional supercurrent phase in Ising superconductor Josephson junction with atomically thin magnetic insulator

Abstract In two-dimensional (2D) NbSe 2 crystal, which lacks inversion symmetry, strong spin-orbit coupling aligns the spins of Cooper pairs to the orbital valleys, forming Ising Cooper pairs (ICPs). The unusual spin texture of ICPs can be further modulated by introducing magnetic exchange. Here, we report unconventional supercurrent phase in van der Waals heterostructure Josephson junctions (JJs) that couples NbSe 2 ICPs across an atomically thin magnetic insulator (MI) Cr 2 Ge 2 Te 6 . By constructing a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID), we measure the phase of the transferred Cooper pairs in the MI JJ. We demonstrate a doubly degenerate nontrivial JJ phase ( ϕ ), formed by momentum-conserving tunneling of ICPs across magnetic domains in the barrier. The doubly degenerate ground states in MI JJs provide a two-level quantum system that can be utilized as a new dissipationless component for superconducting quantum devices. Our work boosts the study of various superconducting states with spin-orbit coupling, opening up an avenue to designing new superconducting phase-controlled quantum electronic devices.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
NASA NTRS2005

SCB Quantum Computers Using iSWAP and 1-Qubit Rotations

Units of superconducting circuitry that exploit the concept of the single- Cooper-pair box (SCB) have been built and are undergoing testing as prototypes of logic gates that could, in principle, constitute building blocks of clocked quantum computers. These units utilize quantized charge states as the quantum information-bearing degrees of freedom. An SCB is an artificial two-level quantum system that comprises a nanoscale superconducting electrode connected to a reservoir of Cooper-pair charges via a Josephson junction. The logical quantum states of the device, .0. and .1., are implemented physically as a pair of charge-number states that differ by 2e (where e is the charge of an electron). Typically, some 109 Cooper pairs are involved. Transitions between the logical states are accomplished by tunneling of Cooper pairs through the Josephson junction. Although the two-level system contains a macroscopic number of charges, in the superconducting regime, they behave collectively, as a Bose-Einstein condensate, making possible a coherent superposition of the two logical states. This possibility makes the SCB a candidate for the physical implementation of a qubit. A set of quantum logic operations and the gates that implement them is characterized as universal if, in principle, one can form combinations of the operations in the set to implement any desired quantum computation. To be able to design a practical quantum computer, one must first specify how to decompose any valid quantum computation into a sequence of elementary 1- and 2-qubit quantum gates that are universal and that can be realized in hardware that is feasible to fabricate. Traditionally, the set of universal gates has been taken to be the set of all 1-qubit quantum gates in conjunction with the controlled-NOT (CNOT) gate, which is a 2-qubit gate. Also, it has been known for some time that the SWAP gate, which implements square root of the simple 2-qubit exchange interaction, is as computationally universal as is the CNOT operation.

Williams, Colin↗
DOE OSTI2021

Resonance from antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations for superconductivity in UTe 2

We report superconductivity originates from the formation of bound (Cooper) pairs of electrons that can move through the lattice without resistance below the superconducting transition temperature $T_c$. Electron Cooper pairs in most superconductors form anti-parallel spin singlets with total spin S = 0, although they can also form parallel spin-triplet Cooper pairs with S = 1 and an odd parity wavefunction. Spin-triplet pairing is important because it can host topological states and Majorana fermions relevant for quantum computation. Because spin-triplet pairing is usually mediated by ferromagnetic (FM) spin fluctuations3, uranium-based materials near an FM instability are considered to be ideal candidates for realizing spin-triplet superconductivity. Indeed, UTe 2 , which has a $T_c$ ≈ 1.6 K, has been identified as a candidate for a chiral spin-triplet topological superconductor near an FM instability, although it also has antiferromagnetic (AF) spin fluctuations. Here we use inelastic neutron scattering (INS) to show that superconductivity in UTe 2 is coupled to a sharp magnetic excitation, termed resonance, at the Brillouin zone boundary near AF order. Because the resonance has only been found in spin-singlet unconventional superconductors near an AF instability, its observation in UTe 2 suggests that AF spin fluctuations may also induce spin-triplet pairing or that electron pairing in UTe 2 has a spin-singlet component.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2024

Multidimensional coherent spectroscopy of light-driven states and their collective modes in multiband superconductors

We present a comprehensive theory of light-controlled multiband superconductivity, and apply it to predict distinctive signatures of light-driven superconducting (SC) states in terahertz multidimensional coherent spectroscopy (THz-MDCS) experiments. We first derive gauge-invariant Maxwell-Bloch equations for multiband BCS superconductors with spatial fluctuations. We consider driving electromagnetic fields determined self-consistently by Maxwell's equations. By calculating the THz-MDCS spectra measured experimentally in the clean SC limit, we identify unique signatures of finite-momentum Cooper-pairing states that live longer than the laser pulse. They are controlled by a pair of THz laser pulses with well-defined relative phase (pulse pair). The pseudospin oscillators that describe the properties of these SC states are parametrically driven by both finite-momentum Cooper pairing and by time oscillations of the order-parameter relative phase. We show that such strong parametric driving leads to drastic changes in the THz-MDCS spectral shape from the predictions of third-order nonlinear susceptibility calculations. These spectral changes strongly depend on the interband-to-intraband interaction ratio and on the collective modes of the light-driven state. For negligible interband interaction, the spectra show a transition with increasing field, from traditional pump-probe, four-wave-mixing, and third-harmonic generation peaks determined by the laser frequency to sidebands determined by the excitations of the driven system. These sidebands emerge from difference-frequency Raman processes in the nonequilibrium SC state. For interband couplings weaker than the intraband pairing, we show that the Leggett phase collective mode leads to harmonic sidebands around the traditional pump-probe peaks. Additional Higgs collective mode peaks result from light-induced inversion-symmetry breaking in a thin-film geometry. For strong interband coupling, we find a transition from a nonequilibrium finite Cooper-pair momentum state characterized by hybrid-Higgs amplitude mode peaks in THz-MDCS spectra to a driven state identified experimentally by the emergence of Floquet-type sidebands at bi-Higgs frequencies. Those dominant bi-Higgs-frequency satellites are manifestations of a new order parameter relative phase collective mode that characterizes the nonequilibrium SC state. The predicted interaction- and field-dependent transitions in the spectral profile allow us to propose THz-MDCS experiments for quantum tomography of light-driven superconductivity.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Estimating the energy threshold of phonon-mediated superconducting qubit detectors operated in an energy-relaxation sensing scheme

In recent years, the lack of a conclusive detection of weakly interacting massive particle dark matter at the 10 GeV/c 2 mass scale and above has encouraged development of low-threshold detector technology aimed at probing lighter dark matter candidates. Detectors based on Cooper-pair-breaking sensors have emerged as a promising avenue for this detection due to the low (meV-scale) energy required for breaking a Cooper pair in most superconductors. Among them, devices based on superconducting qubits are interesting candidates for sensing due to their observed sensitivity to broken Cooper pairs. Here, we have developed an end-to-end G 4 CMP -based simulation framework and have used it to evaluate performance metrics of qubit-based devices operating in a gate-based “energy relaxation” readout scheme, akin to those used in recent studies of qubit sensitivity to ionizing radiation. We find that for this readout scheme, the qubit acts as a phonon sensor with an energy threshold ranging down to ≃ 0.4 eV for near-term performance parameters.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2022

Coupled electronic and magnetic excitations in the cuprates and their role in the superconducting transition

The formation of Cooper pairs, a bound state of two electrons of opposite spin and momenta by exchange of a phonon, is a defining feature of conventional superconductivity. In the cuprate high temperature superconductors, even though the superconducting state also consists of Cooper pairs, the pairing mechanism remains intensely debated. Here, we investigate superconducting pairing in the Bi 2 Sr 2 CaCu 2 O 8+δ (Bi2212) cuprate by employing spectral functions obtained from angle-resolved photoemission as input to the Bethe-Salpeter equation. Assuming Cooper pairing is driven by spin fluctuations, we construct the spin-fluctuation-mediated pairing interaction and use it to compute the eigenfunctions and eigenvalues of the Bethe-Salpeter equation for multiple Bi2212 samples. The leading d-wave eigenvalue increases as the temperature is decreased toward $T_c$, reaching a value of approximately 1 at the $T_c$ corresponding to each doping value. This suggests that spin fluctuations can approximately account for $T_c$ and mediate pairing in the cuprate superconductors.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
NASA NTRS2006

Using Quasiparticle Poisoning To Detect Photons

According to a proposal, a phenomenon associated with excitation of quasiparticles in certain superconducting quantum devices would be exploited as a means of detecting photons with exquisite sensitivity. The phenomenon could also be exploited to perform medium-resolution spectroscopy. The proposal was inspired by the observation that Coulomb blockade devices upon which some quantum logic gates are based are extremely sensitive to quasiparticles excited above the superconducting gaps in their leads. The presence of quasiparticles in the leads can be easily detected via the charge states. If quasiparticles could be generated in the leads by absorption of photons, then the devices could be used as very sensitive detectors of electromagnetic radiation over the spectral range from x-rays to submillimeter waves. The devices in question are single-Cooper-pair boxes (SCBs), which are mesoscopic superconducting devices developed for quantum computing. An SCB consists of a small superconducting island connected to a reservoir via a small tunnel junction and connected to a voltage source through a gate capacitor. An SCB is an artificial two-level quantum system, the Hamiltonian of which can be controlled by the gate voltage. One measures the expected value of the charge of the eigenvectors of this quantum system by use of a radio-frequency single-electron transistor. A plot of this expected value of charge as a function of gate voltage resembles a staircase that, in the ideal case, consists of steps of height 2 e (where e is the charge of one electron). Experiments have shown that depending on the parameters of the device, quasiparticles in the form of "broken" Cooper pairs present in the reservoir can tunnel to the island, giving rise to steps of 1 e. This effect is sometimes called "poisoning." Simulations have shown that an extremely small average number of quasiparticles can generate a 1-e periodic signal. In a device according to the proposal, this poisoning would be turned to advantage. Depending on the wavelength, an antenna or other component would be used to couple radiation into the reservoir, wherein the absorption of photons would break Cooper pairs, thereby creating quasiparticles that, in turn, would tunnel to the island, creating a 1-e signal. On the basis of conservative estimates of device parameters derived from experimental data and computational simulations that fit the data, it has been estimated that the noise equivalent power of a device according to the proposal could be as low as 6 10(exp -22) W/Hz(exp 1/2). It has also been estimated that the spectroscopic resolution (photon energy divided by increment of photon energy) of such a device in visible light would exceed 100.

Echternach, Pierre↗
DOE OSTI2024

Edge supercurrent reveals competition between condensates in a Weyl superconductor

In topological materials, the edge states are readily distinguished from the bulk states. The situation where a topological semimetal becomes superconducting so that Cooper pairs occupy both the bulk and the edge states is not well understood. In particular, we do not know if we can force their pairing symmetries to be different. Here we show that, when supercurrent is injected into the superconducting Weyl semimetal MoTe 2 from Nb contacts, the invasive s-wave pairing potential from Nb is incompatible with the intrinsic Cooper pair condensate in MoTe 2 . This incompatibility leads to strong stochasticity in the switching current and an unusual anti-hysteretic behaviour in the current–voltage loops. There is also an asymmetry in the edge oscillations where, as the magnetic field crosses zero, the phase noise switches from one with a noisy spectrum to one that is noise free. Furthermore, using the noise spectrum as a guide, we track the anomalous features to field-induced switching of the device gap function between s-wave symmetry and the unconventional symmetry intrinsic to MoTe 2 . We infer that the behaviour of the gap function along the edges is different from that in the bulk.

Superconducting properties and materials↗
DOE OSTI2023

Colossal transverse magnetoresistance due to nematic superconducting phase fluctuations in a copper oxide

Electronic anisotropy (“nematicity”) has been detected in cuprate superconductors by various experimental techniques. Using angle-resolved transverse resistance (ARTR) measurements, a very sensitive and background-free technique that can detect 0.5% anisotropy in transport, we have observed it also in La 2-x Sr x CuO 4 (LSCO) for 0.02 ≤ x ≤ 0.25. A central enigma in LSCO is the rotation of the nematic director (orientation of the largest longitudinal resistance) with temperature; this has not been seen before in any material. Here, we address this puzzle by measuring the angle-resolved transverse magnetoresistance (ARTMR) in LSCO. We report the discovery of colossal transverse magnetoresistance (CTMR)—an order-of-magnitude drop in the transverse resistivity in the magnetic field of 6 T. We show that the apparent rotation of the nematic director is caused by anisotropic superconducting fluctuations, which are not aligned with the normal electron fluid, consistent with coexisting bond-aligned and diagonal nematic orders. We quantify this by modeling the (magneto-)conductivity as a sum of normal (Drude) and paraconducting (Aslamazov–Larkin) channels but extended to contain anisotropic Drude and Cooper-pair effective mass tensors. Strikingly, the anisotropy of Cooper-pair stiffness is much larger than that of the normal electrons. It grows dramatically on the underdoped side, where the fluctuations become quasi-one-dimensional. Our analysis is general rather than model dependent. Still, we discuss some candidate microscopic models, including coupled strongly-correlated ladders where the transverse (interladder) phase stiffness is low compared with the longitudinal intraladder stiffness, as well as the anisotropic superconducting fluctuations expected close to the transition to a pair-density wave state.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2022

Superconductivity in multiorbital systems with repulsive interactions: Hund's pairing versus spin-fluctuation pairing

Hund's pairing refers to Cooper pairing generated by onsite interactions that become attractive due to large Hund's exchange J. This is possible in multiorbital systems even when all local bare interactions are repulsive, since attractions in specific channels are given by certain linear combinations of interaction parameters. On the other hand, pairing processes such as the exchange of spin fluctuations are also present. We compare mean-field Hund's pairing and spin-fluctuation-mediated pairing using electronic bands appropriate for different classes of multiorbital systems over a wide range of interaction parameters. We find that, for systems without clear nesting features, the superconducting state generated by the Hund's mechanism agrees well with that from the full fluctuation exchange vertex when Hund's exchange and spin-orbit coupling are sufficiently large. On the other hand, for systems characterized by a peaked finite-momentum particle-hole susceptibility, spin-fluctuation pairing generally dominates over Hund's pairing. From this perspective Hund's pairing states appear unlikely to be realized in systems like Sr 2 RuO 4 and generic iron-based superconductors.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗