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O. V. Dolgov

Publications and source records attributed to O. V. Dolgov.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

The determination of the electron-phonon interaction from tunneling data in the two-band superconductor MgB2

We calculate the tunneling density of states (DOS) of MgB2 for different tunneling directions, by directly solving the real-axis, two-band Eliashberg equations (EE). Then we show that the numeric inversion of the standard single-band EE, if applied to the DOS of the two-band superconductor MgB2, may lead to wrong estimates of the strength of certain phonon branches (e.g. the E_2g) in the extracted electron-phonon spectral function alpha^(2)F(omega). The fine structures produced by the two-band interaction turn out to be clearly observable only for tunneling along the ab planes in high-quality single crystals. The results are compared to recent experimental data.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

Comment on "First-principles calculation of the superconducting transition in MgB2 within the anisotropic Eliashberg formalism"

Choi et al. [Phys. Rev. B 66, 020513 (2002)] recently presented first principles calculations of the electron-phonon coupling and superconductivity in MgB2, emphasizing the importance of anisotropy and anharmonicity. We point out that (1) variation of the superconducting gap inside the sigma- or the pi-bands can hardly be observed in real samples, and (2) taking the anisotropy of the Coulomb repulsion into account influences the size of the small gap, Delta_pi.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

Can one extract the electron-phonon-interaction from tunneling data in case of the multigap superconductor MgB$_2$?

In the present work we calculate the tunneling density of states (DOS) of MgB% $_{2}$ for different tunneling directions by directly solving the two-band Eliashberg equations (EE) in the real-axis formulation. This procedure reveals the fine structures of the DOS due to the optical phonons. Then we show that the numeric inversion of the standard \emph{single-band} EE (the only available method), when applied to the \emph{two-band} DOS of MgB$_{2}$, may lead to wrong estimates of the strength of certain phonon branches (e.g. the $E_{2g}$) in the extracted electron-phonon spectral function $α^{2}F(ω)$. The fine structures produced by the two-band interaction at energies between 20 and 100 meV turn out to be clearly observable only for tunneling along the $ab$ planes, when the extracted $α^{2}F(ω)$ contains the combination $α^{2}F_{σσ}(ω)$\textbf{+}$α^{2}F_{σπ}(ω)$, together with a minor $α^{2}F_{ππ}(ω)$\textbf{+}$α^{2}F_{πσ} (ω)$ component. Only in this case it is possible to extract information on the $σ$-band contribution to the spectral functions. For any other tunneling direction, the $π$-band contribution (which does not determine the superconducting properties of MgB$_{2}$) is dominant and almost coincides with the whole $α^2F(ω)$ for tunneling along the c axis. Our results are compared with recent experimental tunneling and point-contact data.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

Electromagnetic response of superconductors and optical sum rule

The interrelation between the condensation energy and the optical sum rules has been investigated. It has been shown that the so called 'partial' sum rule violation is related mainly to a temperature dependence of the relaxation rate rather than to the appearance of superconductivity itself. Moreover, we demonstrate that the experimental data on the temperature dependence of the optical sum rule can be explained rather well by an account of strong electron-phonon interaction.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

Pressure-dependence of electron-phonon coupling and the superconducting phase in hcp Fe - a linear response study

A recent experiment by Shimizu et al. has provided evidence of a superconducting phase in hcp Fe under pressure. To study the pressure-dependence of this superconducting phase we have calculated the phonon frequencies and the electron-phonon coupling in hcp Fe as a function of the lattice parameter, using the linear response (LR) scheme and the full potential linear muffin-tin orbital (FP-LMTO) method. Calculated phonon spectra and the Eliashberg functions $α^2 F$ indicate that conventional s-wave electron-phonon coupling can definitely account for the appearance of the superconducting phase in hcp Fe. However, the observed change in the transition temperature with increasing pressure is far too rapid compared with the calculated results. For comparison with the linear response results, we have computed the electron-phonon coupling also by using the rigid muffin-tin (RMT) approximation. From both the LR and the RMT results it appears that electron-phonon interaction alone cannot explain the small range of volume over which superconductivity is observed. It is shown that ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations as well as scattering from magnetic impurities (spin-ordered clusters) can account for the observed values of the transition temperatures but cannot substantially improve the agreeemnt between the calculated and observed presure/volume range of the superconducting phase. A simplified treatment of p-wave pairing leads to extremely small ($\leq 10^{-2}$ K) transition temperatures. Thus our calculations seem to rule out both $s$- and $p$- wave superconductivity in hcp Fe.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

Multiband model for tunneling in MgB2 junctions

A theoretical model for quasiparticle and Josephson tunneling in multiband superconductors is developed and applied to MgB2-based junctions. The gap functions in different bands in MgB2 are obtained from an extended Eliashberg formalism, using the results of band structure calculations. The temperature and angle dependencies of MgB2 tunneling spectra and the Josephson critical current are calculated. The conditions for observing one or two gaps are given. We argue that the model may help to settle the current debate concerning two-band superconductivity in MgB2.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

Multiband model for penetration depth in MgB2

The results of first principles calculations of the electronic structure and the electron-phonon interaction in MgB2 are used to study theoretically the temperature dependence and anisotropy of the magnetic field penetration depth. The effects of impurity scattering are essential for a proper description of the experimental results. We compare our results with experimental data and we argue that the two-band model describes the data rather well.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

Two-gap superconductivity in MgB$_{2}$: clean or dirty?

A large number of experimental facts and theoretical arguments favor a two-gap model for superconductivity in MgB$_{2}$. However, this model predicts strong suppression of the critical temperature by interband impurity scattering and, presumably, a strong correlation between the critical temperature and the residual resistivity. No such correlation has been observed. We argue that this fact can be understood if the band disparity of the electronic structure is taken into account, not only in the superconducting state, but also in normal transport.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

Specific heat of MgB$_2$ in a one- and a two-band model from first-principles calculations

The heat capacity anomaly at the transition to superconductivity of the layered superconductor MgB$_2$ is compared to first-principles calculations with the Coulomb repulsion, $μ^\ast$, as the only parameter which is fixed to give the measured $T_c$. We solve the Eliashberg equations for both an isotropic one-band and a two-band model with different superconducting gaps on the $π$ and $σ$ Fermi surfaces. The agreement with experiments is considerably better for the two-band model than for the one-band model.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

Manifestation of multiband optical properties of MgB$_2$

The optical conductivity of MgB$_2$ has been determined on a dense polycrystalline sample in the spectral range 6 meV - 4.6 eV using a combination of ellipsometric and normal incidence reflectivity measurements. $σ_{1}(ω)$ features a narrow Drude peak with anomalously small plasma frequency (1.4 eV) and a very broad "dome" structure, which comprises the bulk of the low-energy spectral weight. This fact can be reconciled with the results of band structure calculations by assuming that charge carriers from the 2D $σ$-bands and the 3D $π$-bands have principally different impurity scattering rates and negligible interband scattering. This also explains a surprisingly small correlation between the defect concentration and $T_c$, expected for a two-gap superconductor. The large 3D carrier scattering rate suggests their proximity to the localization limit.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

Optical Properties of Heavy Fermion Systems with SDW Order

The dynamical conductivity $σ(ω)$, reflectivity $R(ω)$, and tunneling density of states $N(ω)$ of strongly correlated systems (like heavy fermions) with a spin-density wave (SDW) magnetic order are studied as a function of impurity scattering rate and temperature. The theory is generalized to include strong coupling effects in the SDW order. The results are discussed in the light of optical experiments on heavy-fermion SDW materials. With some modifications the proposed theory is applicable also to heavy fermions with localized antiferromagnetic (LAF) order.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

Electron-phonon interaction in the normal and superconducting states of MgB2

For the 40K-superconductor MgB2 we have calculated the electronic and phononic structures and the electron-phonon interaction throughout the Brillouin zone ab initio. In contrast to the isoelectronic graphite, MgB2 has holes in the bonding sigma-bands, which contribute 42 per cent to the density of states: N(0) =0.355 states/(MgB2 eV spin). The total interaction strength, lambda =0.87 and lambda,tr=0.60, is dominated by the coupling of the sigma-holes to the bond-stretching optical phonons with wavenumbers in a narrow range around 590 cm^{-1}. Like the holes, these phonons are quasi two-dimensional and have wave-vectors close to Gamma-A, where their symmetry is E. The pi-electrons contribute merely 0.25 to lambda and to lambda,tr. With Eliashberg theory we evaluate the normal-state resistivity, the density of states in the superconductor, and the B-isotope effect on Tc and Delta0, and find excellent agreement with experiments, when available. Tc=40 K is reproduced with mu*=0.10 and 2Delta0/kB Tc=3.9. MgB2 thus seems to be an intermediate-coupling e-ph pairing s-wave superconductor.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

Nonadiabatic Contribution to the Quasiparticle Self-Energy in Systems with Strong Electron-Phonon Interaction

We investigate effects of a nonadiabatic electron-phonon(boson) interaction on the quasiparticle self-energy in the lowest order in the coupling constant. Existing approaches either overestimate, or underestimate these effects because of different approximations for momentum and frequency dependences of the vertex corrections. The connection between the nonadiabaticity and a possible instability of the interacting Fermi system is discussed as well.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

Transition Radiation of Moving Abrikosov Vortices

We show that Abrikosov vortices moving towards the surface of a superconductor emit electromagnetic radiation into free space. The frequency distribution of the radiated intensity displays a pronounced maximum at microwave frequencies around v_x/lambda, where lambda is the magnetic penetration length. Coherent motion of a lattice of flux lines leads to constructive interference and increases the strength of the radiated power by a large factor.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

Anisotropic impurities in anisotropic superconductors

Physical properties of anisotropic superconductors like the critical temperature and others depend sensitively on the electron mean free path. The sensitivity to impurity scattering and the resulting anomalies are considered a characteristic feature of strongly anisotropic pairing. These anomalies are usually analyzed in terms of s-wave impurity scattering which leads to universal pair breaking effects depending on only two scattering parameters, the mean free path and the impurity cross section. We investigate here corrections coming from anisotropies in the scattering cross section, and find not only quantitative but also qualitative deviations from universal s-wave isotropic pairbreaking. The properties we study are the transition temperature, the density of states, quasiparticle bound states at impurities, and pinning of flux lines by impurities.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

The optical response of Ba_{1-x}K_xBiO_3: Evidence for an unusual coupling mechanism of superconductivity?

We have analysed optical reflectivity data for Ba_{1-x}K_xBiO_3 in the far-infrared region using Migdal-Eliashberg theory and found it inconsistent with standard electron-phonon coupling: Whereas the superconducting state data could be explained using moderate coupling, λ=0.7, the normal state properties indicate λ\le 0.2. We have found that such behaviour could be understood using a simple model consisting of weak standard electron-phonon coupling plus weak coupling to an unspecified high energy excitation near 0.4 eV. This model is found to be in general agreement with the reflectivity data, except for the predicted superconducting gap size. The additional high energy excitation suggests that the dominant coupling mechanism in Ba_{1-x}K_xBiO_3 is not standard electron-phonon.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

Forward Electron-Phonon Scattering in Normal and Superconducting States

The sharp forward electron-phonon $(FEP)$ and impurity $(FIS)$ scattering change the normal and superconducting properties significantly. The pseudo-gap like features are present in the density of states for $ω<Ω$, where $Ω$ is the phonon frequency. The superconducting critical temperature $T_c$, due to the $FEP$ pairing, is linear with respect to the electron-phonon coupling constant. The $FIS$ impurities are pair weakening for $s-$ and $d-wave$ pairing.

cond-mat.supr-con↗