Spontaneously broken time-reversal symmetry in high-temperature superconductors
Journal article, 2015

Conventional superconductors are strong diamagnets that, through the Meissner effect, expel magnetic fields. It would therefore be surprising if a superconducting ground state would support spontaneous magnetics fields. Such time-reversal symmetry-broken states have been proposed for the high-temperature superconductors, but their identification remains experimentally controversial. Here we show a route to a low-temperature superconducting state with broken time-reversal symmetry that may accommodate currently conflicting experiments. This state is characterized by an unusual vortex pattern in the form of a necklace of fractional vortices around the perimeter of the material, where neighbouring vortices have opposite current circulation. This vortex pattern is a result of a spectral rearrangement of current-carrying states near the edges.

Author

Mikael Håkansson

Chalmers, Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2), Applied Quantum Physics

Tomas Löfwander

Chalmers, Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2), Applied Quantum Physics

Mikael Fogelström

Chalmers, Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2), Applied Quantum Physics

Nature Physics

1745-2473 (ISSN) 17452481 (eISSN)

Vol. 11 9 755-760

Subject Categories

Nano Technology

DOI

10.1038/nphys3383

More information

Created

10/8/2017