1

EVIDENCE OF D-WAVE PAIRING IN CUPRATE

SUPERCONDUCTORS.

b
y
Yogesh Chauhan

Submitted to:
Prof. Satyabrata Patnaik
SPS, JNU New Delhi.
 2

INTRODUCTION
1. The first of the Cuprate class of high temperature
superconductors was discovered in 1986 by Bednorz
and Mueller.
2. This discovery awarded Nodel prize, Although the
microscopic mechanism that allows
superconductivity at such high temperature was
unknown.
3. After several attempts, the superconducting state is
caused by the formation of Cooper pairs also these
pairs have zero total spin.
4. The only difference from conventional
superconductor is the pairing mechanism was
govern by d-wave pairing symmetry.
 3

The Cuprate Phase Diagram :

• Parent Mott insulator
• Hole-doped superconductors exhibit antiferromagnetic state.
• The superconducting state emerges as the concentration
increases and antiferromagnetic state disappears.
• The superconducting state exists for wide range of dopant
concentrations.
 4

s-Wave and d-Wave Pairing:

• The lattice has horizontal and vertical reflection
symmetries that the pairing symmetry must respect.
• The Fermions obeys anti-symmetric exchange i.e. if the
spin part of the wave function is anti-symmetric (singlet
state) then the orbital part must be even.
• L = 0; s – wave
• L = 2; d – wave

Continue…
 5

s-Wave and d-Wave

Pairing:
❖ The spatial part of superconducting order parameter is
defined by a complex wave function.
ψ(k)=Δ(k) eiϕ(k)

❖ s-wave pairing symmetry is isotropic : The energy gap is

constant Δ=Δ0

❖ d-wave pairing symmetry is anisotropic : The energy gap

have spatial dependency in momentum space as,
Δ(k)=Δ0 [cos(kxa)−cos(kya)]
 6

Evidence of d-Wave
❑
pairing
Josephson effect
Qualitative test :
For pairing state of the superconductor.

a) If superconductor have s – wave pairing symmetry then both the

configuration corner and edge configuration gives the O – rings i.e.
zero phase shift.

b) If superconductor have d – wave pairing symmetry then the corner

configuration shows O - rings and edge configuration shows the π –
rings i.e. π phase shift.

The experimentally the O – rings and π – rings exhibit different flux

quantization behaviour.
 7

Evidence of d-Wave
pairing
Half – integer Flux quantization:
The free energy of the ring with a Josephson junction is:

Let’s minimize the energy in this limit

The modulation of the critical field with applied magnetic field

is given as:

Different experimental result shows that the edge configuration is a

O-ring. But, the corner configuration is π-ring, indicating that the
superconducting state has d-wave pairing symmetry. Continue…
 8

Evidence of d-Wave
pairingDepth :
Penetration
Definition :
The applied magnetic field penetrates some distance into
the superconductor, decaying exponentially to zero with a
characteristic length called the penetration depth(λ).
Qualitative test :
The curve of temperature versus penetration depth for cuprate
superconductor.
Exponential fitting s – wave pairing symmetry
Power series fitting d – wave pairing symmetry
 9

Thank you for kind attention!