Single Spin Superconductivity

Single Spin Superconductivity

by Robert Rudd and Warren Pickett

Single Spin Superconductivity: Bulk and Junction Effects

(Poster presented at the 1997 Conference on Spectroscopies in Novel Superconductors)

Abstract:

The Josephson Effect provides a primary signature of single spin superconductivity (SSS), the as yet unobserved superconducting state which was proposed recently as a low temperature phase of half-metallic antiferromagnets. These materials are insulating in the spin-down channel but are metallic in the spin-up channel. The SSS state is characterized by a unique form of p-wave pairing within a single spin channel. We develop the theory of a rich variety of Josephson effects that arise due to the form of the SSS order parameter. Tunneling is allowed at a SSS-SSS' junction but of course depends on the relative orientation of their order parameters. No current flows between an SSS and an s-wave BCS system due to their orthogonal symmetries, which potentially can be used to distinguish SSS from other superconducting states. Single spin superconductors also offer a means to probe other materials, where tunneling is a litmus test for any form of ``triplet'' order parameter.

Poster Panels: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Bibliography:

W.E. Pickett, "Single-Spin Superconductivity," Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 3185 (1996).

R.E. Rudd and W.E. Pickett, "Single-Spin Superconductivity: Formulation and Ginzburg-Landau Theory," cond-mat/9704175, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. B (1997).

W.E. Pickett, "Spin Density Functional Based Search for Half-Metallic Antiferromagnets," cond-mat/9709100 (1997).

R.E. Rudd and W.E. Pickett, "The Josephson Effect in Single-Spin Superconductors," accepted for publication in J. of Physics and Chem. of Solids (1997).