Journal Article

Zeeman Field-Induced Nodal Structures in Rashba-Type Noncentrosymmetric Superconductors

Jin, Biao, Chen, Chongju

2016

Overview

We study theoretically the effect of Zeeman field on the Bogoliubov–de Gennes quasiparticle excitation spectrum of a three-dimensional noncentrosymmetric ( s + p ) -wave model. The quasiparticle excitation spectrum may possess line nodes due to the mixing of s -wave and p -wave pairing in the absence of Zeeman field. Our calculations show that, depending on the magnitude and the orientation of an applied Zeeman field, a variety of nodal structures including nodal points, nodal lines, and nodal surfaces may be generated in the excitation spectrum. These results are corroborated by numerical computations of the low-temperature electronic specific heat. Specifically, we demonstrate rigorously that the zero-field nodal lines will be robust against a weak z -axis oriented Zeeman field. It is also found that the electronic specific heat calculated for a Zeeman field in the x – y plane may qualitatively account for the novel feature of specific heat observed experimentally in CePt 3 Si.

• Publisher: Springer US,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Characterization and Evaluation of Materials / Condensed Matter Physics / Electronics / Electrons / Elementary excitations / Excitation / Excitation spectra / Heat / Low temperature / Low temperature physics / Magnetic Materials / Magnetism / Mathematical models / Numerical analysis / Orientation / P waves / Physics / Physics and Astronomy / Specific heat / Superconductivity / Superconductors / Symmetry / Temperature / Three dimensional models