arXiv subjects

Jonathan Schirmer

Publications and source records attributed to Jonathan Schirmer.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Current Induced Switching of Superconducting Order and Enhancement of Superconducting Diode Efficiency

We propose that the superconducting diode (SD) efficiency can be significantly enhanced near the transition between two superconducting states by choosing parameters where, before the system goes normal with increasing supercurrent, it switches into a different superconducting order for one direction of the current but not for the other. This mechanism for producing high SD efficiency relies on the expectation that the critical current depends sensitively on the superconducting order. We demonstrate this explicitly by performing detailed calculations for a bilayer superconductor with an in-plane magnetic field, which admits the standard Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) and the orbital Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) orders as a function of the strength of the magnetic field. We predict a sharp peak in the SD efficiency in the FFLO state close to the transition, which arises from a complex interplay between the two superconducting orders. An implication of our study is that the measurement of the SD efficiency can provide fundamental insight into the nature of the BCS-FFLO transition both as a function of the magnetic field and the supercurrent.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2025

Superfluid Weight of Strongly Inhomogeneous Superconductors

In this work, we obtain the expression, within the linear response approximation, that allows the direct calculation of the superfluid weight for strongly inhomogeneous superconductors. Using this expression, we find that, in general, the correction to the superfluid weight due to the response of the superconductor's pairing potential to the perturbing vector potential is important in superconductors with a strongly inhomogeneous pairing potential. We consider two exemplary cases: the case when strong inhomogeneities in the pairing potential are induced by a periodic potential, and the case when superconducting vortices are induced by an external magnetic field. For both cases we show that the correction to the superfluid weight due to the response of the paring potential to the perturbing vector potential can be significant, it must be included to obtain quantitatively correct results, and that for the case when vortices are present the expression of the superfluid weight that does not include such correction returns qualitatively wrong results.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2024

BCS Stripe Phase in Coupled Bilayer Superconductors

As a signature of competing correlations, stripes occur in a variety of strongly correlated systems, such as high temperature superconductors (SCs) and quantum Hall effect. We study a double layer SC in the presence of a parallel magnetic field $B$ within the Bogoliubov-de Gennes framework. We find that for low $B$ the system remains in the ``Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) phase" with a spatially uniform gap, but with increasing $B$, a transition occurs into a phase which contains stripes of the BCS phase separated by regions where the interlayer phase difference rotates by $2π$ due to the presence of inter-layer vortices. This stripe phase is predicted to manifest through oscillations in the amplitude of the SC gap and an alternating pattern of supercurrents. We will comment on the relation to previous works based on the Landau-Ginzburg formalism as well as on the possible experimental realization and signature of this phase.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2024

Crossover from Integer to Fractional Quantum Hall Effect

The parton theory constructs candidate fractional quantum Hall states by decomposing the physical particles into unphysical partons, placing the partons in integer quantum Hall states, and then gluing the partons back into the physical particles. Field theoretical formulations execute the gluing process through the device of emergent gauge fields. Here we study numerically the process of going from the integer quantum Hall effect of two species of fermionic partons to the fractional quantum Hall effect of bosons by introducing an attractive interaction between the fermions of different species and continuously increasing its strength to glue them into bosons. To properly capture the physics in the bulk, we implement this process in a lattice version of the spherical geometry, which allows us to keep the full Hilbert space. Even though the two end-point states are topologically distinct, we find that, for the small system sizes accessible to our study, the energy gap remains open, indicating a crossover between these two states.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2024

Topological superconductivity induced by spin-orbit coupling, perpendicular magnetic field and superlattice potential

Topological superconductors support Majorana modes, which are quasiparticles that are their own antiparticles and which obey non-Abelian statistics in which successive exchanges of particles do not always commute. Here we investigate whether a two-dimensional superconductor with ordinary s-wave pairing can be rendered topological by the application of a strong magnetic field. To address this, we obtain the self-consistent solutions to the mean field Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations, which are a large set of nonlinearly coupled equations, for electrons moving on a lattice. We find that the topological "quantum Hall superconductivity" is facilitated by a combination of spin-orbit coupling, which locks an electron's spin to its momentum as it moves through a material, and a coupling to an external periodic potential which gives a dispersion to the Landau levels and also distorts the Abrikosov lattice. We find that, for a range of parameters, the Landau levels broadened by the external periodic potential support topological superconductivity, which is typically accompanied by a lattice of "giant" $h/e$ vortices as opposed to the familiar lattice of $h/2e$ Abrikosov vortices. In the presence of a periodic potential, we find it necessary to use an ansatz for the pairing potential of the form $Δ(\vec{r})e^{i2\vec{Q}\cdot\vec{r}}$ where $Δ(\vec{r})$ has a periodicity commensurate with the periodic potential. However, despite this form of the pairing potential, the current in the ground state is zero. In the region of ordinary superconductivity, we typically find a lattice of dimers of $h/2e$ vortices. Our work suggests a realistic proposal for achieving topological superconductivity, as well as a helical order parameter and unusual Abrikosov lattices.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2023

Hall Coefficient and Resistivity in the Doped Bilayer Hubbard Model

Finding and understanding non-Fermi liquid transport behaviors are at the core of condensed matter physics. Most of the existing studies were devoted to the monolayer Hubbard model, which is the simplest model that captures essential features of high-temperature superconductivity. Here we discover a new type of non-Fermi liquid behavior emergent in the hole-doped bilayer Hubbard model, using dynamical mean-field theory with a full consideration of the short-range interlayer electron correlation. We find that at low temperatures, the Hall coefficient has a strong nonmonotonic dependence on temperature, leading to a double or quadruple reversal of its sign depending on the doping level. At the same time, the resistivity exhibits two plateaus rather than linearity in its temperature dependence. We show that these intriguing transport behaviors stem from the formation of coherent interlayer singlets, which scatter off gapped collective modes arising from short-range interlayer antiferromagnetic fluctuations.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2022

Superconductivity in a system of interacting spinful semions

Non-interacting particles obeying certain fractional statistics have been predicted to exhibit superconductivity. We discuss the issue in an attractively interacting system of spinful semions on a lattice by numerically investigating the presence of off-diagonal long-range order at zero temperature. For this purpose, we construct a Hubbard model wherein two semions with opposite spin can virtually coincide while maintaining consistency with the fractional braiding statistics. Clear off-diagonal long range order is seen in the strong coupling limit, consistent with the expectation that a pair of semions obeys Bose statistics. We find that the semion system behaves similarly to a system of fermions with the same attractive Hubbard $U$ interaction for a wide range of $U$, suggesting that semions also undergo a BCS to BEC crossover as a function of $U$.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2022

Phase diagram of superconductivity in the integer quantum Hall regime

An interplay between pairing and topological orders has been predicted to give rise to superconducting states supporting exotic emergent particles, such as Majorana particles obeying non-Abelian braid statistics. We consider a system of spinless electrons on a Hofstadter lattice with nearest neighbor attractive interaction, and solve the mean-field Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations in a self-consistent fashion, leading to gauge invariant solutions that display a rich phase diagram as a function of the chemical potential, magnetic field and the interaction. As the strength of the attractive interaction is increased, the system first makes a transition from a quantum Hall phase to a skyrmion lattice phase that is fully gapped in the bulk but has topological chiral edge current, characterizing a topologically non-trivial state. This is followed by a vortex phase in which the vortices carrying Majorana modes form a lattice; the spectrum contains a low-energy Majorana band arising from the coupling between neighboring vortex-core Majorana modes but does not have chiral edge currents. For some parameters, a dimer vortex lattice occurs with no low energy Majorana band. The experimental feasibility and the observable consequences of skyrmions as well as Majorana fermions are indicated.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2020

Hall Effect for Dirac Electrons in Graphene Exposed to an Abrikosov Flux Lattice

The proposals for realizing exotic particles through coupling of quantum Hall effect to superconductivity involve spatially non-uniform magnetic fields. As a step toward that goal, we study, both theoretically and experimentally, a system of Dirac electrons exposed to an Abrikosov flux lattice. We theoretically find that non-uniform magnetic field causes a carrier-density dependent reduction of the Hall conductivity. Our studies show that this reduction originates from a rather subtle effect: a levitation of the Berry curvature within Landau levels broadened by the non-uniform magnetic field. Experimentally, we measure the magneto-transport in a monolayer graphene-hexagonal boron nitride - niobium diselenide (NbSe$_2$) heterostructure, and find a density-dependent reduction of the Hall resistivity of graphene as the temperature is lowered from above the superconducting critical temperature of NbSe$_2$, when the magnetic field is uniform, to below, where the magnetic field bunches into an Abrikosov flux lattice.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗