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Unveiling Odd-Frequency Pairing around a Magnetic Impurity in a Superconductor
Vivien Perrin1, Flávio L N Santos1,2, Gerbold C Ménard3
1Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, 91405 Orsay, France.
Physical Review Letters
|September 25, 2020
Summary
We found that magnetic impurities in superconductors can create unusual superconducting states. This study provides experimental proof of odd-frequency pairing, a novel superconducting behavior, and extracts its function from data.
Area of Science:
- Condensed Matter Physics
- Superconductivity Research
- Materials Science
Background:
- Conventional superconductors typically exhibit s-wave pairing, characterized by even parity.
- Magnetic impurities break time-reversal symmetry locally, leading to unconventional electronic states.
- Understanding impurity effects is crucial for advancing superconductor applications.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate unconventional superconducting correlations induced by magnetic impurities.
- To experimentally demonstrate the existence of odd-frequency pairing.
- To develop a method for extracting the superconducting function of odd-frequency pairing.
Main Methods:
- Theoretical derivation of a proportionality relation between electron density of states and pairing function.
- Experimental analysis of scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) spectra.
- Application of the derived relation to experimental data from magnetic impurities on a Pb/Si(111) monolayer.
Main Results:
- Established an exact proportionality between even-frequency electron density of states and odd-frequency pairing function.
- Provided experimental evidence for odd-frequency pairing in magnetic impurity systems.
- Successfully extracted the superconducting function of odd-frequency pairing from STM data.
Conclusions:
- Magnetic impurities induce unconventional, odd-frequency superconducting states in s-wave superconductors.
- The derived theoretical relation is experimentally validated, enabling direct observation of odd-frequency pairing.
- This work opens new avenues for exploring and utilizing novel superconducting phenomena.
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