Microwave Response of V3Si Single Crystals: Evidence for Two-Gap Superconductivity

The investigation of the temperature dependences of microwave surface impedance and complex conductivity of V3Si single crystals with different stoichiometry allowed to observe a number of peculiarities which are in remarkable contradiction with single-gap Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer theory. At the same time, they can be well described by two-band model of superconductivity, thus strongly evidencing the existence of two distinct energy gaps with zero-temperature values Delta1~1.8Tc and Delta2~0.95Tc in V3Si.Comment: Submitted to Europhysics Letter

Three-band superconductivity and the order parameter that breaks time-reversal symmetry

We consider a model of multiband superconductivity, inspired by iron pnictides, in which three bands are connected via repulsive pair-scattering terms. Generically, three distinct superconducting states arise within such a model. Two of them are straightforward generalizations of the two-gap order parameter while the third one corresponds to a time-reversal symmetry breaking order parameter, altogether absent within the two-band model. Potential observation of such a genuinely frustrated state would be a particularly vivid manifestation of the repulsive interactions being at the root of iron-based high temperature superconductivity. We construct the phase diagram of this model and discuss its relevance to the iron pnictides family of high temperature superconductors. We also study the case of the Josephson coupling between a two-band s' (or extended s-wave) superconductor and a single-gap s-wave superconductor, and the associated phase diagram.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures. Added discussion and references, one new figure (Fig. 3

Interaction of strongly correlated electrons and acoustical phonons

We investigate the interaction of correlated electrons with acoustical phonons using the extended Hubbard-Holstein model in which both, the electron-phonon interaction and the on-site Coulomb repulsion are considered to be strong. The Lang-Firsov canonical transformation allows to obtain mobile polarons for which a new diagram technique and generalized Wick's theorem is used. This allows to handle the Coulomb repulsion between the electrons emerged into a sea of phonon fields (\textit{phonon clouds}). The physics of emission and absorption of the collective phonon-field mode by the polarons is discussed in detail. Moreover, we have investigated the different behavior of optical and acoustical phonon clouds when propagating through the lattice. In the strong-coupling limit of the electron-phonon interaction, and in the normal as well as in the superconducting phase, chronological thermodynamical averages of products of acoustical phonon-cloud operators can be expressed by one-cloud operator averages. While the normal one-cloud propagator has the form of a Lorentzian, the anomalous one is of Gaussian form and considerably smaller. Therefore, the anomalous electron Green's functions can be considered to be more important than corresponding polarons functions, i.e., pairing of electrons without phonon-clouds is easier to achieve than pairing of polarons with such clouds.Comment: : 28 pages, 9 figures, revtex4. Invited paper for a special issue of Low Temperature Physics dedicated to the 20th anniversary of HTS

Spontaneous symmetry breaking and coherence in two-dimensional electron-hole and exciton systems

The spontaneous breaking of the continuous symmetries of the two-dimensional(2D) electron-hole systems in a strong perpendicular magnetic field leads to the formation of new ground states and determines the energy spectra of the collective elementary excitations appearing over these ground states. In this review the main attention is given to the electron-hole systems forming coplanar magnetoexcitons in the Bose-Einstein condensation(BEC) ground state with the wave vector k=0, taking into account the excited Landau levels, when the exciton-type elementary excitations coexist with the plasmon-type oscillations. At the same time properties of the two-dimensional electron gas(2DEG) spatially separated as in the case of double quantum wells(DQWs) from the 2D hole gas under conditions of the fractional quantum Hall effect(FQHE) are of great interest because they can influence the quantum states of the coplanar magnetoexcitons when the distance between the DQW layers diminishes. We also consider in this review the bilayer electron systems under conditions of the FQHE with the one half filling factor for each layer and with the total filling factor for two layers equal to unity because the coherence between the electron states in two layers is equivalent to the formation of the quantum Hall excitons(QHExs) in a coherent macroscopic state. The breaking of the global gauge symmetry as well as of the continuous rotational symmetries leads to the formation of the gapless Nambu-Goldstone(NG) modes while the breaking of the local gauge symmetry gives rise to the Higgs phenomenon characterized by the gapped branches of the energy spectrum. The conditions in which the spontaneous coherence could appear in a system of indirect excitons in a double quantum well structures are discussed. The experimental attempts to achieve these conditions, the main results and the accumulated knowledge are reviewed.Comment: 30 pages, 4 figure

Light-induced valley currents and magnetization in graphene rings

We study the non-equilibrium dynamics in a mesoscopic graphene ring excited by picoseconds shaped electromagnetic pulses. We predict an ultrafast buildup of charge polarization, currents and orbital magnetization. Applying the light pulses identified here, non-equilibrium valley currents are generated in a graphene ring threaded by a stationary magnetic flux. We predict a finite graphene ring magnetization even for a vanishing charge current; the magnetization emerges due to the light-induced difference of the valley populations.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Diagrammatic theory for Periodic Anderson Model: Stationary property of the thermodynamic potential

Diagrammatic theory for Periodic Anderson Model has been developed, supposing the Coulomb repulsion of $f-$ localized electrons as a main parameter of the theory. $f-$ electrons are strongly correlated and $c-$ conduction electrons are uncorrelated. Correlation function for $f-$ and mass operator for $c-$ electrons are determined. The Dyson equation for $c-$ and Dyson-type equation for $f-$ electrons are formulated for their propagators. The skeleton diagrams are defined for correlation function and thermodynamic functional. The stationary property of renormalized thermodynamic potential about the variation of the mass operator is established. The result is appropriate as for normal and as for superconducting state of the system.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figure