Robust d-wave pairing symmetry in multi-orbital cobalt high temperature superconductors

Abstract

The pairing symmetry of the newly proposed cobalt high temperature (high-$T_c$) superconductors formed by vertex shared cation-anion tetrahedral complexes is studied by the methods of mean field, random phase approximation (RPA) and functional renormalization group (FRG) analysis. The results of all these methods show that the $d_{x^2-y^2}$ pairing symmetry is robustly favored near half filling. The RPA and FRG methods, which are valid in weak interaction regions, predict that the superconducting state is also strongly orbital selective, namely the $d_{x^2-y^2}$ orbital that has the largest density near half filling among the three $t_{2g}$ orbitals dominates superconducting pairing. These results suggest that the new materials, if synthesized, can provide indisputable test to high-$T_c$ pairing mechanism and the validity of different theoretical methods.