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Research article

Upper critical field H_c2 in Bechgaard salts (TMTSF)₂PF₆

Ana D Folgueras^1,2 and Kazumi Maki³

¹  Departamento de Física, Universidad de Oviedo, 33007 Oviedo, Spain

²  Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid, C.S.I.C, Cantoblanco, 28049 Madrid, Spain

³  Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0484, USA

author email corresponding author email

PMC Physics B 2008, 1:19doi:10.1186/1754-0429-1-19

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.physmathcentral.com/1754-0429/1/19

Received:	30  November  2007
Accepted:	9  December  2008
Published:	9  December  2008

© 2008 Folgueras et al
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

The symmetry of the superconductivity in Bechgaard salts is still unknown, though the triplet pairing has been established by H_c2 and NMR for (TMTSF)₂PF₆. The large upper critical field at T = 0K (H_c2 ~ 5 Tesla) both for and also indicates strongly the triplet pairing.

Here we start with a low energy effective Hamiltonian and study the temperature dependence of the corresponding H_c2(T)'s.

The present analysis suggests that one chiral f-wave superconductor should be the most likely candidate near the upper critical field.

PACS Codes: 74.70.Kn ; 74.20.Rp; 74.25.Op.

Introduction

The Bechgaard salt (TMTSF)₂ PF₆ is the first organic superconductor discovered in 1980 [1] . Until very recently the superconductivity was believed to be conventional s-wave [2] . More recently the symmetry of the superconductivity has become one of the central issues [3] . The upper critical field at T = 0K in (TMTSF)₂PF₆ and (TMTSF)₂ClO₄ are clearly beyond the Pauli limit [4-7] , suggesting triplet pairing. Recent NMR data [8,9] from (TMTSF)₂PF₆ supports triplet superconductivity.

Here we shall first derive H_c2(T) for a variety of p-wave and f-wave superconductors [8] . Later, we will discuss the relation between the nuclear spin relaxation rate and the nodal lines.

Theoretical model

In the following we shall examine the upper critical field of these superconductors following the standard method initiated by Gor'kov [10] and extended by Luk'yanchuk and Mineev [11] for unconventional superconductors. Also we take the quasiparticle energy in the normal state as in the standard model for Bechgaard salts [2]

(1)

with v : v_b : v_c ~ 1 : 1/10 : 1/300 and v = v_a, v_b = and v_c = ; for example, P. M. Grant [12] gives v_c ~ 1 meV, t_b ~ 26.2 meV and t_a ~ 365 meV.

There are earlier analysis of H_c2 of Bechgaard salts starting from the one dimensional models [13,14] . However, those models predict diverging H_c2(T) for T → 0K or the reentrance behaviour, which have not been observed in the experiments [4,5] . The one dimensional model, like the one proposed by Lebed [13,15] is valid only when 2t_c < 2.14T_c ~ 3 K, in Bechgaard salts it is believed that the transfer integral in the c direction is 2t_c ~ 10 – 30 K while the superconducting transition temperature is T_c ~ 1.2 K, so the 1D model is unrealistic. Also, the quasilinear T dependence of H_c2(T) in both (TMTSF)₂PF₆ and (TMTSF)₂ClO₄ is very unusual.

We consider a 3D model, though strongly anisotropic. We start with a continuum model, where the cristal anisotropy is incorporated only through the great anisotropies of the Fermi velocities. We have considered chiral superconductors because these symmetries have been shown to lead to higher H_c2s. In the absence of an applied magnetic field, we could obtain one of those chiral states as a combination of two different order parameters (with two different transition temperatures), but the external magnetic field breaks the time reversal symmetry, allowing the formation of a chiral state in the superconducting phase (see [16] ).

Among the symmetries we have considered, the chiral f'-wave superconductor with , looks most promising, where χ₁ = and χ₂ = are and the cristal vectors.

Moreover, if the superconductor belongs to one of the nodal superconductors [17,18] and if nodes lay parallel to within the two sheets of the Fermi surface, the angle dependent nuclear spin relaxation rate in a magnetic field rotated within the b' - c* plane will tell the nodal directions.

Before proceeding, we show |(Δ()| of two chiral f-wave superconductors in Fig. 1a) and 1b).

1 Results and discussion

Upper critical field for

In the following we neglect the spin component of . Most likely the equal spin pairing is realised in Bechgaard salts as in Sr₂RuO₄ [3] . In this case the spin component is characterized by a unit vector . Also is most likely oriented parallel to . Let's assume , though H_c2(T) is independent of as long as the spin orbit interaction is negligible. Experimental data from both UPt₃ and Sr₂RuO₄ indicate that the spin-orbit interactions in these systems are not negligible but extremely small [3] . We consider a variety of triplet superconductors (see some of them in Fig. 1), most of them chiral variants, as we find in general that the chiral variant has larger H_c2 than the non-chiral one:

Simple p-wave SC:

Following [17,18] the upper critical field is determined by

(2)

(3)

where

(4)

(5)

and , and ⟨...⟩ means average over χ₂. Here v_a, v_c are the Fermi velocities parallel to the a axis and the c axis respectively.

Here we assumed that Δ() is given by [17,18] :

(6)

where is the Abrikosov state [19] , C_n the occupancy of the n^th Landau level (we assume there is only one occupied Landau level) and is the raising operator.

Then in the vicinity of t → 1 we find and .

For t → 0 on the other hand we obtain

(7)

and C = -0.031. From these we obtain

(8)

Both ρ₀(t) and C(t) are evaluated numerically and shown in Fig. 2a) and b) respectively. Here ρ₀(t) = t²ρ(t) = v_a v_ceH_c2(t)/2(2πT_c)².

Chiral p-wave SC:

Here is the analogue of e^ιϕ if in the 3D systems in the quasi 1D system.

For a chiral state the Abrikosov function is written as [20] :

(9)

where . Then we obtain eq. 2–3 with

(10)

(11)

and the same expressions for t, ρ,...

For t → 1 we find and ρ = 0.3838(-ln t).

On the other hand, for t → 0 we obtain C = -0.3660 and ρ₀ = 0.27343.

From these we obtain h(0) = 0.71324. We obtain ρ(t) and C(t) numerically. They are shown in Fig. 2a) and 2b) respectively.

Chiral f-wave SC:

H_c2(t) is determined from eq. 2–3 where now:

(12)

(13)

Here now means the average over both χ₁ and χ₂. As in previous sections, (s depends on the direction of the magnetic field). Then it is easy to see that the chiral f-wave SC has the same H_c2(t) and C(t) as the chiral p-wave SC, since the variable χ₁ is readily integrated out.

Chiral f'-wave SC:

Now we have a set of equations similar to the chiral f-wave except (1 + cos 2χ₁) in both eqs. 13 has to be replaced by (1 + cos 2χ₁). We obtain, for t → 1, C = -0.2247 and ρ = 0.5181(-ln t). On the other hand, for t → 0 we find C = -0.3660 and ρ₀ = 0.3734.

We show ρ₀ and C(t) of the chiral f'-wave in Fig. 2a) and 2b) respectively.

Note that C(t) is the same for three chiral states (chiral p-wave, chiral f-wave and chiral f'-wave) as well as chiral p-wave studied in [20] .

Therefore for the magnetic field , the chiral f'-wave have the largest H_c2(t) if we assume T_c and v, v_c are the same. Also H_c2(t) of these states are closest to the observation.

Upper critical field for

In this section, we assume the applied magnetic field runs parallel to the direction defined by . We calculate the upper critical field in these circunstances for different symmetries of the order parameter, following the same procedure as the one we used in previous section.

Simple p-wave SC:

The equation for H_c2(t) is given by [17,18] and can be written as in eq. 2–3 with:

(14)

(15)

where and s = (sin χ₁ + ι sin χ₂) with χ₁ = and χ₂ = .

Then for t → 1, we find and . While for t → 0 and , where α₀ = -⟨ln|s|²⟩ = 0.220051 and . From these we obtain h(0) = 0.73673.

Both h(t) and C(t) are evaluated numerically and we show them in Fig. 3a) and 3b) respectively.

Chiral p-wave SC:

Now H_c2(t) is determined by a similar set of equations as Ec. 10–11. Now, s = (sin χ₁ + ι sin χ₂). In particular we find for t → 1 C = -0.027735 and ρ = 0.212598(ln t) while for t → 0 C = -0.067684 and ρ₀ = 0.139672. We obtain h(0) = 0.6566. We show h(t) and C(t) in Fig. 3a) and 3b) respectively.

Chiral f-wave SC:

Again we use a similar set of equations as Ec. 12–13, with s = (sin χ₁ + ι sin χ₂), we find for t → 1 C = -0.0356236 and ρ = 0.2744495(ln t) while for t → 0 C = 0.066 and ρ₀ = 0.1920 and h(0) = 0.6997. Both h(t) and C(t) are evaluated numerically and shown in Fig. 3a) and 3b).

Chiral f'-wave SC:

Now we find for t → 1 C = -0.05 and ρ = -0.2910(ln t), while for t → 0 C = -0.1019 and ρ₀ = 0.2090.

We have shown again h(t) and C(t) in Fig. 3a) and 3b) respectively.

Comparing these results with H_c2(T) from (TMTSF)₂PF₆ and (TMTSF)₂ClO₄ [4,5] , we can conclude that for both and , the chiral f'-wave SC is most consistent with experimental data. In particular these states have relatively large h(0) (see Table 1). On the other hand almost the same H_c2(0) for and has to be still accounted.

Nodal lines in Δ()

We have seen that from the temperature dependence of H_c2(T), we can deduce the chiral f-wave and chiral f'-wave superconductors are the most favourable candidates. They have nodal lines on the Fermi surface (i.e. the χ₁ - χ₂ plane), the chiral f-wave SC at χ₁ = , while chiral f'-wave SC at χ₂ = .

These nodal lines may be detected if the nuclear spin relaxation rate is measured in a magnetic field rotated within the b' - c* plane.

Following the standard procedure given in [21] , the quasiparticle density of states in the vortex state for T <<T_c and E = 0 is given by

(16)

where χ₁₀ is the position of the nodal line (i.e. the angle that defines the line on which Δ(k) = 0). So for the chiral f-wave SC we find χ₁₀ = and N (0, ) exhibits the simple angular dependence. On the other hand when nodal lines are on the χ₂ axis, the θ dependence will be too small to see. Finally this gives

(17)

for the chiral f-wave SC.

We show the θ dependence of in Fig. 4 for a few candidates. The chiral f-wave SC has the strongest θ dependence (solid line) while the chiral h-wave SC (dashed line) and the chiral p-wave SC (dotted line) have a similar θ dependence.

Conclusion

We have computed the upper critical field of Bechgaard salts for a variety of nodal superconductors with the standard microscopic theory. The results are shown in Fig. 2 and 3. We find:

a) Assuming all these superconductors have the same T_c, the chiral f'-wave SC appears to be the most favourable with largest H_c2's for both and .

b) However, non of these states exhibit the quasilinear temperature dependence of H_c2(T) as observed in [3] .

c) Also the present theory predicts H_c2(0) ~ (v_a v_c)^-1 and (v_b v_c)^-1 for and respectively. This means H_c2(0) for is about 5 time larger than the one for contrary to observation.

d) From H_c2(0) ~ 5T and T_c = 1.5 K we can extract v² = ~ 1.510⁴ cm s^-1, consistent with the known values of v_a, v_c.

We have also shown that the nodal lines should be visible through the angle dependent in NMR with the magnetic field rotating in the c*-b' plane.

Acknowledgements

We thank S. Brown, P. Chaikin, S. Haas and H. Won for useful discussion. ADF also acknowledges gratefully the discussion with J. Ferrer and F. Guinea. The authors would also like to aknowledge the useful comments of the reviewers during the correction process.

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