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A. S. Mel'nikov

Publications and source records attributed to A. S. Mel'nikov.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv2022

Giant electromagnetic proximity effect in superconductor/ferromagnet superlattices

We show that in superlattices with alternating superconducting (S) and ferromagnetic (F) layers the spontaneous magnetic field induced in the superconducting layers due to the electromagnetic proximity effect becomes dramatically enhanced compared to the previously studied S/F bilayers. The effect reveals itself for the in-plane orientation of the magnetic moments both for ferromagnetic and anti-ferromagnetic ordering of the moments in the F layers. In the finite size samples the magnetic field decays from the sample surface towards the bulk of the structure, and the decay length strongly depends on the relative orientation of the sample surface, the layers planes and magnetic moments in the F layers. The obtained results provide additional insights into experimental data on the neutron scattering in Nb/Gd superlattices.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2021

Electron-phonon heat transfer in giant vortex states

We examine energy relaxation of non-equilibrium quasiparticles in different vortex configurations in ``dirty'' $s$-wave superconductors. The heat flow from the electronic subsystem to phonons in a mesoscopic superconducting disk with a radius of the order of several coherence lengths is calculated both in the Meissner and giant vortex states using the Usadel approach. The recombination process is shown to be strongly affected by interplay of the subgap states, located in the vortex core and in the region at the sample edge where the spectral gap $E_{\rm g}$ is reduced by the Meissner currents. In order to uncover physical origin of the results, we develop a semiquantitative analytical approximation based on the combination of homogeneous solutions of Usadel equations in Meissner and vortex states of a mesoscopic superconducting disc and analytically calculate the corresponding spatially resolved electron-phonon heat rates. Our approach provides an important information about non-equilibrium quasiparticles cooling by the magnetic-field induced traps in various mesoscopic superconducting devices.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2021

Geometry controlled superconducting diode and anomalous Josephson effect triggered by the topological phase transition in curved proximitized nanowires

We study the key features of the Josephson transport through a curved semiconducting nanowire. Based on numerical simulations and analytical estimates within the framework of the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations we find the ground-state phase difference $φ_0$ between the superconducting leads tuned by the spin splitting field $h$ driving the system from the topologically trivial to the nontrivial superconducting state. The phase $φ_0$ vanishes for rather small $h$, grows in a certain field range around the topological transition, and then saturates at large $h$ in the Kitaev regime. Both the subgap and the continuum quasiparticle levels are responsible for the above behavior of the anomalous Josephson phase. It is demonstrated that the crossover region on $φ_0(h)$ dependencies reveals itself in the superconducting diode effect. The resulting tunable phase battery can be used as a probe of topological transitions in Majorana networks and can become a useful element of various quantum computation devices.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2021

Inverse Faraday Effect for Superconducting Condensates

The Cooper pairs in superconducting condensates are shown to acquire a temperature-dependent dc magnetic moment under the effect of the circularly polarized electromagnetic radiation. The mechanisms of this inverse Faraday effect are investigated within the simplest version of the phenomenological dynamic theory for superfluids, namely, the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau (GL) model. The light-induced magnetic moment is shown to be strongly affected by the nondissipative oscillatory contribution to the superconducting order parameter dynamics which appears due to the nonzero imaginary part of the GL relaxation time. The relevance of the latter quantity to the Hall effect in superconducting state allows to establish the connection between the direct and inverse Faraday phenomena.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2020

Topological transitions in electronic spectra: Crossover between Abrikosov and Josephson vortices

The electronic structure of a vortex line trapped by a planar defect in a type-II superconductor is analyzed within the Bogoliubov-de Gennes theory. The normal reflection of electrons and holes at the defect plane results in the topological transition in the spectrum and formation of a new type of quasiparticle states skipping or gliding along the defect. This topological transition appears to be a hallmark of the initial stage of the crossover from the Abrikosov to the Josephson vortex type revealing in the specific behavior of the quantized quasiparticle levels and density of states. The increase in the resulting hard and soft gaps affects the vortex mobility along the defect plane and splitting of the zero bias anomaly in the tunneling spectral characteristics.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2020

Multiple topological transitions driven by the interplay of normal scattering and Andreev scattering

The effect of multiple topological transitions for electron-hole excitations is discovered in full shell proximitized semiconducting nanowires with trapped superconducting vortices, recently shown to be a promising platform for the realization of Majorana states at moderate longitudinal magnetic fields. The mechanism of such multiple transitions is uncovered and explained to be governed by the interplay of normal and Andreev reflections from the shell and by the textured spin-orbit coupling inside the semiconductor. The extensive analysis of emerging propagating and Majorana-type evanescent quasiparticle modes in such Andreev waveguides is performed. Experimentally, these modes reveal themselves in peculiarities of charge and spin-polarized heat transport.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2020

Geometry -- dependent effects in Majorana nanowires

Starting from the Bogolubov - de Gennes theory describing the induced p-wave superconductivity in the Majorana wire of an arbitrary shape, we predict a number of intriguing phenomena such as the geometry-dependent phase battery (or a phi-Josephson junction with the spontaneous superconducting phase difference) and generation of additional quasiparticle modes at the Fermi level with the spatial position tuned by the external magnetic field direction. This tuning can be used to extend the capabilities of the braiding protocols in Majorana networks.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2019

Electromagnetic proximity effect controlled by spin-triplet correlations in superconducting spin-valve structures

The spin-triplet correlations in superconducting spin valve structures arising in the presence of noncollinear textures of magnetic moment are shown to enhance strongly the electromagnetic proximity effect, i. e. the long-range leakage of the magnetic field from the ferromagnet (F) to the superconducting (S) layer. Both the dirty and clean limits are studied on the basis of the Usadel and Eilenberger theory, correspondingly. Our results suggest a natural explanation for the puzzling enhancement of the spontaneous magnetic fields induced by the noncollinear magnetic structures observed by the muon spin rotation techniques in a wide class of layered S/F systems. We show that the electromagnetic proximity effect causes the shift of the Fraunhofer dependence of the critical current on the external magnetic field in the Josephson junction with one superconducting electrode covered by the ferromagnetic layer. This provides an alternative way to measure both the magnitude and the direction of the spontaneous magnetic field induced in the superconductor. We also demonstrate the possibility of the long ranged superconductivity control of the magnetic state in F$_1$/S/F$_2$ structures.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2019

Higgs modes in proximized superconducting systems

The proximity effect in hybrid superconducting - normal metal structures is shown to affect strongly the coherent oscillations of the superconducting order parameter $Δ$ known as the Higgs modes. The standard Higgs mode at the frequency $2Δ$ is damped exponentially by the quasiparticle leakage from the primary superconductor. Two new Higgs modes with the frequencies depending on both the primary and induced gaps in the hybrid structure are shown to appear due to the coherent electron transfer between the superconductor and the normal metal. Altogether these three modes determine the long-time asymptotic behavior of the superconducting order parameter disturbed either by the electromagnetic pulse or the quench of the system parameters and, thus, are of crucial importance for the dynamical properties and restrictions on the operating frequencies for superconducting devices based on the proximity effect used, e.g., in quantum computing, in particular, with topological low-energy excitations.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2019

Electronic structure of mesoscopic superconducting disk: Quasiparticle tunneling between the giant vortex core and disk edge

The electronic structure of the giant vortex states in a mesoscopic superconducting disk is studied in a dirty limit using the Usadel approach. The local density of states profiles are shown to be strongly affected by the effect of quasiparticle (QP) tunneling between the states localized in the vortex core and the ones bound to the sample edge. Decreasing temperature leads to a crossover between the edge-dominated and core-dominated regimes in the magnetic field dependence of the tunneling conductance. This crossover is discussed in the context of the efficiency of quasiparticle cooling by the magnetic field induced QP traps in various mesoscopic superconducting devices.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2018

Temperature controlled FFLO instability in superconductor-ferromagnet hybrids

We show that a wide class of layered superconductor-ferromagnet (S/F) hybrids demonstrate the emergence of the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) phase well below the superconducting transition temperature. Decreasing the temperature one can switch the system from uniform to the FFLO state which is accompanied by the damping of the diamagnetic Meissner response down to zero and also by the sign change in the curvature of the current-velocity dependence. Our estimates show that an additional layer of the normal metal (N) covering the ferromagnet substantially soften the conditions required for the predicted FFLO instability and for existing S/F/N systems the temperature of the transition into the FFLO phase can reach several kelvins.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2018

Electromagnetic proximity effect in planar superconductor-ferromagnet structures

The spread of the Cooper pairs into the ferromagnet in proximity coupled superconductor - ferromagnet (SF) structures is shown to cause a strong inverse electromagnetic phenomenon, namely, the long-range transfer of the magnetic field from the ferromagnet to the superconductor. Contrary to the previously investigated inverse proximity effect resulting from the spin polarization of superconducting surface layer, the characteristic length of the above inverse electrodynamic effect is of the order of the London penetration depth, which usually much larger than the superconducting coherence length. The corresponding spontaneous currents appear even in the absence of the stray field of the ferromagnet and are generated by the vector-potential of magnetization near the S/F interface and they should be taken into account at the design of the nanoscale S/F devices. Similarly to the well-known Aharonov-Bohm effect, the discussed phenomenon can be viewed as a manifestation of the role of vector potential in quantum physics.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2017

Nonlocality and dynamic response of Majorana states in fermionic superfluids

We suggest a microscopic model describing the nonlocal ac response of a pair of Majorana states in fermionic superfluids beyond the tunneling approximation. The time-dependent perturbations of quasiparticle transport are shown to excite finite period beating of the wavefunction between the distant Majorana states. We propose an experimental test to measure the characteristic time scales of quasiparticle transport through the pair of Majorana states defining, thus, quantitative characteristics of nonlocality known to be a generic feature of Majorana particles.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2017

Laser pulse probe of chirality of Cooper pairs

The internal chirality of Cooper pairs is shown to modify strongly the response of a superconductor to the local heating by a laser beam. The suppression of the chiral order parameter inside the hot spot appears to induce the supercurrents flowing around the spot region. The chirality affects also the sequential stage of thermal quench developing according to the Kibble-Zurek scenario: besides the generation of vortex-antivortex pairs the quench facilitates the formation of superconducting domains with different chirality. These fingerprints of the chiral superconducting state can be probed by any experimental techniques sensitive to the local magnetic field. The supercurrents encircling the hot spot originate from the inhomogeneity of the state with the broken time reversal symmetry and their detection would provide a convenient alternative to the search of the spontaneous edge currents sensitive to the boundary properties. Thus, the suggested setup can help to resolve the long-standing problem of unambiguous detection of type of pairing in Sr2RuO4 considered as a good candidate for chiral superconductivity.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2016

Giant Mesoscopic Fluctuations and Long Range Superconducting Correlations in Superconductor--Ferromagnet structures

The fluctuating superconducting correlations emerging in dirty hybrid structures in conditions of the strong proximity effect are demonstrated to affect the validity range of the widely used formalism of Usadel equations at mesoscopic scales. In superconductor -- ferromagnet (SF) structures these giant mesoscopic fluctuations originating from the interference effects for the Cooper pair wave function in the presence of the exchange field can be responsible for an anomalously slow decay of superconducting correlations in a ferromagnet even when the non-collinear and spin-orbit effects are negligible. The resulting sample-to-sample fluctuations of the Josephson current in SFS junctions and local density of states in SF hybrid structures can provide an explanation of the long range proximity phenomena observed in mesoscopic samples with collinear magnetization.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2016

Quasiparticle trapping in Meissner and vortex states of mesoscopic superconductors

Nowadays superconductors serve in numerous applications, from high-field magnets to ultra-sensitive detectors of radiation. Mesoscopic superconducting devices, i.e. those with nanoscale dimensions, are in a special position as they are easily driven out of equilibrium under typical operating conditions. The out-of-equilibrium superconductors are characterized by non-equilibrium quasiparticles. These extra excitations can compromise the performance of mesoscopic devices by introducing, e.g., leakage currents or decreased coherence times in quantum devices. By applying an external magnetic field, one can conveniently suppress or redistribute the population of excess quasiparticles. In this article we present an experimental demonstration and a theoretical analysis of such effective control of quasiparticles, resulting in electron cooling both in the Meissner and vortex states of a mesoscopic superconductor. We introduce a theoretical model of quasiparticle dynamics which is in quantitative agreement with the experimental data.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2015

Electronic structure of vortices pinned by columnar defects in $p_x \pm i p_y$ superconductors

The electronic structure of a vortex pinned by an insulating columnar inclusion in a type-II chiral $p_x \pm i p_y$ superconductor is studied within the Bogolubov-de Gennes theory. The structure of the anomalous spectral branch is shown to be strongly affected by the mutual orientations of the angular momenta of the center of mass and the relative motion of the two electrons in the Cooper pair. Being only slightly perturbed by the scattering at the defect for the zero sum of these angular momenta the anomalous spectral branch appears to change dramatically in the absence of such compensation. In the latter case the defect presence changes the anomalous branch slope sign at the Fermi level resulting in the quasiparticle angular momenta inversion at the positive energies and the impact parameters smaller than the defect radius. The experimentally observed consequences for the scanning tunneling microscopy characteristics and vortex dynamics are discussed.

cond-mat.supr-con↗