Yi-Jian Hu | Searcharxiv

arXiv2025

A "negative" route to pair density wave order

Pair density waves (PDW) are novel forms of superconducting states that exhibit periodically modulated pairing. A remaining challenge is to elucidate how intrinsic PDW order can emerge robustly in strongly correlated electrons. Here we propose that PDW is prone to form in strongly coupled multiband superconductors simply with interband Cooper pairing between electrons from oppositely dispersing bands. This scenario is heuristically motivated by the observation that uniform interband pairing in such systems would exhibit negative superfluid weight -- a signature of an instability towards pairing modulation, implying that PDW emerges naturally in the true ground state. Using large-scale density-matrix-renormalization-group calculations with finite-size scaling analysis, we demonstrate this PDW mechanism in a minimal model with strong interband attractions. Our simulations reveal power-law superconducting correlations characterized by incommensurate modulations. The exponent $K_{sc}$ of the power-law PDW correlation decreases systematically with increasing ladder width, confirming a genuine long-range PDW order in the 2D limit. Our study therefore demonstrates a promising route to robust PDW states in multiband systems.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2024

Quantum geometric superfluid weight in multiband superconductors: A microscopic interpretation

Even in non-interacting limit, electrons on different Bloch bands of a multiband system do not move as if they are oblivious to the presence of one another. Instead, they move in concert by virtue of a non-Abelian interband Berry connection. While the impact of this quantum geometric attribute manifests most famously through the Hall response of topological bands, the geometric effects in superconductors have attracted significant recent attention. In particular, much has been discussed about the quantum-metric-induced superfluid weight (SW) in flatband superconductors. In this study, we revisit the geometric SW in generic multiband superconductors and trace its origin to a series of microscopic processes. We separately derive the SW of models containing only intraband Cooper pairing and those involving interband pairing. Two classes of processes enabled by the so-called interband velocity (or the closely related interband Berry connection) are identified: one resembles the transfer of Cooper pairs between different bands, and the other corresponds to virtual single-electron back-and-forth tunneling between the bands. The former contribution manifests as effective Josephson coupling between the multiband superconducting order parameters, while the latter constitutes the only source of SW for a superconducting flatband well isolated from other bands. We further numerically evaluate the SW of a simple two-band superconductor with trivial band topology, showcasing how the geometric contribution is sensitive to the details of the multiband pairing configuration. In particular, we highlight an intriguing scenario of negative SW, which may pave way for the formation of novel pair density wave order. Our study provides deeper and more intuitive insight into the origin and nature of the SW induced by the quantum geometry of paired Bloch states.

cond-mat.supr-con↗