Restoration of the Magnetic hc/e-Periodicity in Unconventional Superconductors

Vladimir Juričić; Igor F. Herbut; Zlatko Tešanović

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.187006

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Restoration of the Magnetic hc/e-Periodicity in Unconventional Superconductors

Vladimir Juričić, Igor F. Herbut, Zlatko Tešanović

DOI 10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.187006 · Physical Review Letters

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Abstract

We consider the energy of the filled quasiparticle’s Fermi sea of a macroscopic superconducting ring threaded by an hc/2e vortex, when the material of the ring is of an unconventional pairing symmetry. The energy relative to the one for the hc/e vortex configuration is finite, positive, and inversely proportional to the ring’s inner radius. We argue that the existence of this energy in unconventional superconductors removes the commonly assumed degeneracy between the odd and the even vortices, with the loss of the concomitant hc/2e-periodicity in an external magnetic field as a consequence. This macroscopic quantum effect should be observable in nanosized unconventional superconductors with a small phase stiffness, such as deeply underdoped YBCO with Tc<5 K.

Source-reported materials — not catalogue approval

Formula	Reported Tc (K)	Pressure (GPa)	Type
YBa2Cu3O7-δ Archive — visibility unverified Source-occurrence policy only; no material identity or catalogue acceptance is inferred from the formula.	5	Pressure not reported	onset
Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ Archive — visibility unverified Source-occurrence policy only; no material identity or catalogue acceptance is inferred from the formula.	—	Pressure not reported	unknown