Vortex core order and field-driven phase coexistence in the attractive Hubbard model

Abstract

Superconductivity occurs in the proximity of other competing orders in a wide variety of materials. Such competing phases may reveal themselves when superconductivity is locally suppressed by a magnetic field in the core of a vortex. We explore the competition between superconductivity and charge density wave order in the attractive Hubbard model on a square lattice. Using Bogoliubov-deGennes mean field theory, we study how vortex structures form and evolve as the magnetic flux is tuned. Each vortex seeds a CDW region whose size is determined by the energy cost of the competing phase. The vortices form a lattice whose lattice parameter shrinks with increasing flux. Eventually, their charge-ordered vortex cores overlap, leading to a field-driven coexistence phase exhibiting both macroscopic charge order and superconductivity -- a `supersolid'. Ultimately, superconductivity disappears via a first-order phase transition into a purely charge ordered state. We construct a phase diagram containing these multiple ordered states, using $t'$, the next-nearest neighbour hopping, to tune the competition between phases.