Perspectives on Nodal Superconductors

We study the thermal conductivity within the E$_{1g}$ and E$_{2u}$ models for superconductivity in UPt$_3$ and compare the theoretical results for electronic heat transport with recently measured results reported by Lussier, Ellman and Taillefer. The existing data down to $T/T_c\approx 0.1$ provides convincing evidence for the presence of both line and point nodes in the gap, but the data can be accounted for either by an E$_{1g}$ or E$_{2u}$ order parameter. We discuss the f...

The power-law temperature dependences of the specific heat, the nuclear relaxation rate, and the thermal conductivity suggest the presence of line nodes in the superconducting gap of Sr2RuO4. These recent experimental observations contradict the scenario of a nodeless (k_x+ik_y)-type superconducting order parameter. We propose that interaction of superconducting order parameters on different sheets of the Fermi surface is a key to understanding the above discrepancy. A full g...

We find evidence that the newly discovered Fe-based superconductor KCa$_2$Fe$_4$As$_4$F$_2$ ($T_c~=~33.36(7)$~K) displays multigap superconductivity with line nodes. Transverse field muon spin rotation ($\mu$SR) measurements show that the temperature dependence of the superfluid density does not have the expected behavior of a fully-gapped superconductor, due to the lack of saturation at low temperatures. Moreover, the data cannot be well fitted using either single band model...

Contrary to the usual assumption, the electron Bloch states in crystals with spin-orbit coupling do not always transform under symmetry operations in the same way as the pure spin-1/2 states. This has profound consequences for the symmetry properties and nodal structure of superconductors, especially for the interband gap functions. Focusing on tetragonal superconductors, we show that the interband pairing in the conventional (s-wave) channel can have features which are tradi...

The superconducting gap structure of recently discovered heavy fermion superconductor PrOs4Sb12 was investigated by using thermal transport measurements in magnetic field rotated relative to the crystal axes. We demonstrate that a novel change in the symmetry of the superconducting gap function occurs deep inside the superconducting state, giving a clear indication of the presence of two distinct superconducting phases with twofold and fourfold symmetries. We infer that the g...

The thermal conductivity of a YBCO single crystal has been studied as a function of the relative orientation of the crystal axes and a magnetic field rotating in the Cu-O planes. Measurements were carried out at several temperatures below T_c and at a fixed field of 30 kOe. A four-fold symmetry characteristic of a superconducting gap with nodes at odd multiples of 45 degrees in k-space was resolved. Experiments were performed to exclude a possible macroscopic origin for such ...

A heavy-fermion superconductor UPt$_3$ is a unique spin-triplet superconductor with multiple superconducting phases. Here we provide the first report on the first-principles analysis of the microscopic superconducting gap structure. We find that the promising gap structure is an unprecedented $E_{2u}$ state, which is completely different from the previous phenomenological $E_{2u}$ models. Our obtained $E_{2u}$ state has in-plane twofold vertical line nodes on small Fermi surf...

A brief history is offered concerning the relation of magnetism to superconductivity, and the possibility that magnetic correlations are responsible for certain types of superconductors. A central focus is on high temperature cuprate superconductivity and the important question of whether its d-wave pairing is caused by antiferromagnetic or singlet correlations. Connected with this question is the much debated relation of the pseudogap phase to the superconducting phase, and ...

We apply a semi-classical method to the problem of field angle-dependent oscillations of the density of states and thermal conductivity for nodal superconductors and apply our results to the superconductor PrOs$_4$Sb$_{12}$. The oscillatory contributions to the thermal conductivity for all possible point node configurations for a superconductor with $T_h$ symmetry are calculated. It is found that experimental results are best accounted for by nodes in the off-axis directions ...

The magnetic penetration depth ($\lambda$) as a function of applied magnetic field and temperature in SrPt$_3$P($T_c\simeq8.4$ K) was studied by means of muon-spin rotation ($\mu$SR). The dependence of $\lambda^{-2}$ on temperature suggests the existence of a single $s-$wave energy gap with the zero-temperature value $\Delta=1.58(2)$ meV. At the same time $\lambda$ was found to be strongly field dependent which is the characteristic feature of the nodal gap and/or multi-gap s...