Strong odd-frequency correlations in fully gapped Zeeman-split superconductors.


Change log
Authors
Linder, Jacob 
Robinson, Jason WA 
Abstract

It is now well established that at a superconductor/ferromagnet (S/F) interface an unconventional superconducting state arises in which the pairing is odd-frequency. The hallmark signature of this superconducting state is generally understood to be an enhancement of the electronic density of states (DoS) at subgap energies close to the S/F interface. However, here we show that an odd frequency state can be present even if the DoS is fully gapped. As an example, we show that this is the case in the pioneering S/FI (where FI is a insulating ferromagnet) tunneling experiments of Meservey and Tedrow, and we derive a generalized analytical criterium to describe the effect of odd-frequency pairing on the DoS. Finally, we propose a simple experiment in which odd-frequency pairing in a Zeeman-split superconductor can be unambiguously detected via the application of an external magnetic field.

Description
Keywords
51 Physical Sciences, 5104 Condensed Matter Physics
Journal Title
Sci Rep
Conference Name
Journal ISSN
2045-2322
2045-2322
Volume Title
5
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Sponsorship
J.L was supported by the Research Council of Norway, Grants No. 205591 and 216700 and the ”Outstanding Academic Fellows” programme at NTNU. J.W.A.R. acknowledges financial support from the Royal Society (”Superconducting Spintronics”) and through a Leverhulme Trust International Network Grant (grant IN-2013-033).