Nuclear magnetic resonance studies of vortices in high temperature superconductors

A. M. Mounce, S. Oh, W. P. Halperin

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

The distinct distribution of local magnetic fields due to superconducting vortices can be detected with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and used to investigate vortices and related physical properties of extreme type II superconductivity. This review summarizes work on high temperature superconductors (HTS) including cuprates and pnictide materials. Recent experimental results are presented which reveal the nature of vortex matter and novel electronic states. For example, the NMR spectrum has been found to provide a sharp indication of the vortex melting transition. In the vortex solid a frequency dependent spin-lattice relaxation has been reported in cuprates, including YBa 2Cu 3O 7-x, Bi 2SrCa 2Cu 2O 8+δ, and Tl 2Ba 2CuO 6+δ. These results have initiated a new spectroscopy via Doppler shifted nodal quasiparticles for the investigation of vortices. At very high magnetic fields this approach is a promising method for the study of vortex core excitations. These measurements have been used to quantify an induced spin density wave near the vortex cores in Bi 2SrCa 2Cu 2O 8+δ. Although the cuprates have a different superconducting order parameter than the iron arsenide superconductors there are, nonetheless, some striking similarities between them regarding vortex dynamics and frequency dependent relaxation.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)450-462
Number of pages13
JournalFrontiers of Physics
Volume6
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2011

Funding

Acknowledgements We thank Nate Bachman, Yunkyu Bang, Pengcheng Dai, Matthias Eschrig, Morten Eskildsen, Kasu Fujita, Yuji Furukawa, Philip Kuhns, Moohee Lee, Vesna Mitrovic, Bill Moulton, Sutirtha Mukhopadhyay, Arneil Reyes, Eric Sigmund, and Anton Vorontsov for their contributions. Support for our work is acknowledged from the U. S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering, award DE-FG02-05ER46248.

Keywords

  • Doppler effect
  • nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)
  • superconductor
  • vortex

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)

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