Deeper insight into the terahertz response of conventional superconductors under magnetic field

Abstract

We investigate the terahertz conductivity of conventional superconductors in Voigt and Faraday magneto-optical configurations. First, we review theoretical approaches describing the fundamental processes of suppression of superconductivity in magnetic field and how the in-gap states are filled. In the Voigt geometry, thin superconducting films are fully penetrated by the magnetic field which interacts with the spin, thus modifying the magnitudes of the optical gap and of the density of the condensate. In this configuration, we provide an alternative description of the recent experiments showing the gapless conductivity of a Nb film measured by Lee et al. [Nat. Commun. 14, 2737 (2023)], which better fits their data for magnetic fields above 1 T. In the Faraday geometry, we measured and analyzed the terahertz conductivity of three NbN films with varying thicknesses using the Maxwell-Garnett model, treating vortices as normal-state inclusions within a superconducting matrix. In both geometries, the optical conductivity can be comprehensively described by the model of Herman and Hlubina [Phys. Rev. B 96, 014509 (2017)] involving pair-conserving and magnetic-field-dependent pair-breaking disorder scattering processes.

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