Schwinger boson study of superconductivity mediated by antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations

Eirik Erlandsen and Asle Sudbø
Phys. Rev. B 102, 214502 – Published 4 December 2020

Abstract

We study superconductivity in a normal metal, arising from effective electron-electron interactions mediated by spin fluctuations in a neighboring antiferromagnetic insulator. Introducing a frustrating next-nearest neighbor interaction in a Néel antiferromagnet with an uncompensated interface, the superconducting critical temperature is found to be enhanced as the frustration is increased. Further, for sufficiently large next-nearest neighbor interaction, the antiferromagnet is driven into a stripe phase, which can also give rise to attractive electron-electron interactions. For the stripe phase, as previously reported for the Néel phase, the superconducting critical temperature is found to be amplified for an uncompensated interface where the normal metal conduction electrons are coupled to only one of the two sublattices of the magnet. The superconducting critical temperature arising from fluctuations in the stripe phase antiferromagnet can be further enhanced by approaching the transition back to the Néel phase.

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  • Received 7 September 2020
  • Revised 26 October 2020
  • Accepted 18 November 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.102.214502

©2020 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Eirik Erlandsen and Asle Sudbø*

  • Center for Quantum Spintronics, Department of Physics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway

  • *Corresponding author: asle.sudbo@ntnu.no

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Issue

Vol. 102, Iss. 21 — 1 December 2020

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