Unified formalism of Andreev reflection at a ferromagnet/superconductor interface.

We present a unified formalism of Andreev reflection of a partial polarized current at a ferromagnet/superconductor interface instead of assuming a linear combination of unpolarized and polarized currents. The Andreev reflection is limited by the states of minority spins and the extra majority spins become evanescent wave. We further study the effects of spin polarization, inelastic scattering, and interfacial scattering on the Andreev reflection, normal reflection, and transmitted probabilities in equilibrium as well as under a bias. Our model, which reduces to those of Blonder, Tinkham, and Klapwijk, Mazin, and Dynes in three limiting cases, provides a significantly better description of the experimental results.

Friedel-like oscillations from interstitial iron in superconducting Fe(1+y)Te0.62Se0.38.

Using polarized and unpolarized neutron scattering, we show that interstitial Fe in superconducting Fe(1+y)Te(1-x)Se(x) induces a magnetic Friedel-like oscillation that diffracts at Q⊥=(1/2 0) and involves >50 neighboring Fe sites. The interstitial >2µ(B) moment is surrounded by compensating ferromagnetic four-spin clusters that may seed double stripe ordering in Fe(1+y)Te. A semimetallic five-band model with (1/2 1/2) Fermi surface nesting and fourfold symmetric superexchange between interstitial Fe and two in-plane nearest neighbors largely accounts for the observed diffraction.

Spin gap and resonance at the nesting wave vector in superconducting FeSe_{0.4}Te_{0.6}.

Neutron scattering is used to probe magnetic excitations in FeSe_{0.4}Te_{0.6} (T_{c} = 14 K). Low energy spin fluctuations are found with a characteristic wave vector (1/21/2L) that corresponds to Fermi surface nesting and differs from Q_{m} = (delta01/2) for magnetic ordering in Fe_{1+y}Te. A spin resonance with variant Planck's over 2piOmega_{0} = 6.51(4) meV approximately 5.3k_{B}T_{c} and variant Planck's over 2piGamma = 1.25(5) meV develops in the superconducting state from a normal state continuum. We show that the resonance is consistent with a bound state associated with s_{+/-} superconductivity and imperfect quasi-2D Fermi surface nesting.

A BCS-like gap in the superconductor SmFeAsO0.85F0.15.

Since the discovery of superconductivity in the high-transition-temperature (high-T(c)) copper oxides two decades ago, it has been firmly established that the CuO(2) plane is essential for superconductivity and gives rise to a host of other very unusual properties. A new family of superconductors with the general composition of LaFeAsO(1-x)F(x) has recently been discovered and the conspicuous lack of the CuO(2) planes raises the tantalizing question of a different pairing mechanism in these oxypnictides. The superconducting gap (its magnitude, structure, and temperature dependence) is intimately related to pairing. Here we report the observation of a single gap in the superconductor SmFeAsO(0.85)F(0.15) with T(c) = 42 K as measured by Andreev spectroscopy. The gap value of 2Delta = 13.34 +/- 0.3 meV gives 2Delta/k(B)T(c) = 3.68 (where k(B) is the Boltzmann constant), close to the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) prediction of 3.53. The gap decreases with temperature and vanishes at T(c) in a manner consistent with the BCS prediction, but dramatically different from that of the pseudogap behaviour in the copper oxide superconductors. Our results clearly indicate a nodeless gap order parameter, which is nearly isotropic in size across different sections of the Fermi surface, and are not compatible with models involving antiferromagnetic fluctuations, strong correlations, the t-J model, and the like, originally designed for the high-T(c) copper oxides.

Relativity restored: Dirac anisotropy in QED3.

We show that, at long length scales and low energies and to leading order in 1/N expansion, the anisotropic QED in 2+1 dimensions renormalizes to an isotropic limit. Consequently, the (Euclidean) relativistic invariance of the theory is spontaneously restored at the isotropic critical point.

Magnetic field induced charge and spin instabilities in cuprate superconductors.

A d-wave superconductor, subject to strong phase fluctuations, is known to suffer an antiferromagnetic instability closely related to the chiral symmetry breaking in ( 2+1)-dimensional quantum electrodynamics ( QED3). Based on this idea we formulate a " QED3 in a box" theory of local instabilities of a d-wave superconductor in the vicinity of a single pinned vortex undergoing quantum fluctuations. As a generic outcome we find an incommensurate 2D spin density wave forming in the neighborhood of a vortex with a concomitant "checkerboard" pattern in the local electronic density of states, in agreement with recent neutron scattering and tunneling spectroscopy measurements.

Algebraic Fermi liquid from phase fluctuations: "topological" fermions, vortex "berryons," and QED3 theory of cuprate superconductors.

Within the phase fluctuation model for the pseudogap state of cuprate superconductors we identify a novel statistical "Berry phase" interaction between the nodal quasiparticles and fluctuating vortex-antivortex excitations. The effective action describing this model assumes the form of an anisotropic Euclidean quantum electrodynamics in (2+1) dimensions (QED (3)) and naturally generates non-Fermi liquid behavior for its fermionic excitations. The doping axis in the x -T phase diagram emerges as a quantum critical line which regulates the low energy fermiology.

Quasiparticles in the vortex lattice of unconventional superconductors: bloch waves or landau levels?

A novel singular gauge transformation is developed for quasiparticles in the mixed state of a strongly type-II superconductor which permits a full solution of the problem at low and intermediate fields, H(c1)