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arXiv:1206.2928 · Physical Review B

Three distinct types of quantum phase transitions in a (2+1)-dimensional array of dissipative Josephson junctions

Einar B. Stiansen, Iver Bakken Sperstad, Asle Sudbø

Published Jun 25, 2012• 14 citations
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Abstract

We have performed large-scale Monte Carlo simulations on a model describing a (2+1)-dimensional array of dissipative Josephson junctions. We find three distinct stable quantum phases of the system. The most ordered state features long-range spatial ordering in the phase $\ensuremath{\theta}$ of the superconducting order parameter, but temporal ordering only in spatial gradients $\ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\theta}$, not in $\ensuremath{\theta}$. Significantly, the most ordered state therefore does not have three-dimensional (3D) $XY$ ordering. Rather, it features two-dimensional (2D) spin waves coexisting with temporally disordered phases $\ensuremath{\theta}$. There is also an intermediate phase featuring quasi-long-range spatial order in $\ensuremath{\theta}$ coexisting with a gas of instantons in $\ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\theta}$. We briefly discuss possible experimental signatures of such a state, which may be viewed as a local metal and a global superconductor. The most disordered state has phase disorder in all spatio-temporal directions, and may be characterized as a gas of proliferated vortices coexisting with a gas of $\ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\theta}$ instantons. The phase transitions between these phases are discussed. The transition from the most ordered state to the intermediate state is driven by proliferation of instantons in $\ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\theta}$. The transition from the intermediate state to the most disordered state is driven by the proliferation of spatial point vortices in the background of a proliferated $\ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\theta}$-instanton gas, and constitutes a Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless phase transition. The model also features a direct phase transition from the most ordered state to the most disordered state, and this transition is neither in the 2D $XY$ nor in the 3D $XY$ universality class. It comes about via a simultaneous proliferation of point vortices in two spatial dimensions and $\ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\theta}$ instantons, with a complicated interplay between them. The results are compared to, and differ in a fundamental way from, the results that are found in dissipative quantum rotor systems. The difference originates with the difference in the values that the fundamental degrees of freedom can take in the latter systems compared to dissipative Josephson junction arrays.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.85.224531

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We have performed large-scale Monte Carlo simulations on a model describing a (2+1)-dimensional array of dissipative Josephson junctions. We find three distinct stable quantum phases of the system. The most ordered state features long-range spatial ordering in the phase \ensuremathθ\ensuremath{\theta}\ensuremathθ of the superconducting order parameter, but temporal ordering only in spatial gradients \ensuremathΔ\ensuremathθ\ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\theta}\ensuremathΔ\ensuremathθ, not in \ensuremathθ\ensuremath{\theta}\ensuremathθ. Significantly, the most ordered state therefore does not have three-dimensional (3D) XYXYXY ordering. Rather, it features two-dimensional (2D) spin waves coexisting with temporally disordered phases \ensuremathθ\ensuremath{\theta}\ensuremathθ. There is also an intermediate phase featuring quasi-long-range spatial order in \ensuremathθ\ensuremath{\theta}\ensuremathθ coexisting with a gas of instantons in \ensuremathΔ\ensuremathθ\ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\theta}\ensuremathΔ\ensuremathθ. We briefly discuss possible experimental signatures of such a state, which may be viewed as a local metal and a global superconductor. The most disordered state has phase disorder in all spatio-temporal directions, and may be characterized as a gas of proliferated vortices coexisting with a gas of \ensuremathΔ\ensuremathθ\ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\theta}\ensuremathΔ\ensuremathθ instantons. The phase transitions between these phases are discussed. The transition from the most ordered state to the intermediate state is driven by proliferation of instantons in \ensuremathΔ\ensuremathθ\ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\theta}\ensuremathΔ\ensuremathθ. The transition from the intermediate state to the most disordered state is driven by the proliferation of spatial point vortices in the background of a proliferated \ensuremathΔ\ensuremathθ\ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\theta}\ensuremathΔ\ensuremathθ-instanton gas, and constitutes a Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless phase transition. The model also features a direct phase transition from the most ordered state to the most disordered state, and this transition is neither in the 2D XYXYXY nor in the 3D XYXYXY universality class. It comes about via a simultaneous proliferation of point vortices in two spatial dimensions and \ensuremathΔ\ensuremathθ\ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\theta}\ensuremathΔ\ensuremathθ instantons, with a complicated interplay between them. The results are compared to, and differ in a fundamental way from, the results that are found in dissipative quantum rotor systems. The difference originates with the difference in the values that the fundamental degrees of freedom can take in the latter systems compared to dissipative Josephson junction arrays.
This thesis presents seven research papers on topics in condensed-matter theory. Five of the papers report on Monte Carlo studies of quantum phase transitions in various (d+1)-dimensional statistical mechanics models featuring Caldeira-Leggettlike dissipation. The principal motivation for these studies was to investigate a particular bond-dissipative (2+1)-dimensional XY model of circulating currents in cuprate high-temperature superconductors. It has been proposed that quantum critical fluctuations associated with a local quantum critical point described by this model can explain the marginal-Fermi-liquid behaviour of the normal state of these compounds. We present simulation results for this model for both compact and noncompact phase variables and show unambiguously that the quantum critical point in the compact case is not local. If the phases are taken to be noncompact variables, the model is also a model of resistively shunted Josephson junction arrays. The results in this case reveal a more complicated phase diagram, but we have not been able to establish critical behaviour consistent with the scenario of local quantum criticality.\n\nThe study of extended quantum dissipative models is also motivated by the general effect on condensed-matter systems of the coupling to environmental degrees of freedom. Their influence on quantum critical phenomena is characterized by the dynamical critical exponent z, a measure of spatiotemporal anisotropy, the value of which can be estimated by naive scaling arguments. We confirm by numerical means that such scaling estimates give correct results to a good approximations (with a few reservations), irrespective of system dimensionality, order parameter symmetry, or whether the variables are compact or noncompact. Corrections to the naive scaling estimates have to be invoked for strongly super-Ohmic dissipation for d = 1 due to relatively large values of the anomalous scaling dimension η.\n\nThe two last research papers are concerned with the superconducting pairing state of the recently discovered class of iron-based high-temperature superconductors. Here, we calculate possible signatures of the proposed s±-wave pairing state in conductance-spectroscopy and Josephson-effect experiments.
The two-dimensional quantum XY model, with a Caldeira-Leggett form of dissipation, is applicable to the quantum-critical properties of diverse experimental systems, ranging from superconductor to insulator transitions, ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic transitions in metals, to the loop-current order transition in cuprates. We solve the reexpression of this model in terms of orthogonal topological excitations, vortices, and a variety of instantons, by renormalization group methods. The calculations explain the extraordinary properties of the model discovered in Monte Carlo calculations: the product form of the quantum-critical fluctuations in space and time, a spatial correlation length proportional to the logarithm of the temporal correlation length near the transition from a disordered to a fully ordered state, and the occurrence of a phase with spatial order without temporal order. They are intimately related to the flow of the metric of time in relation to the metric of space, i.e., of the dynamical critical exponent zzz. These properties appear to be essential in understanding the strange metallic phase found in a variety of quantum-critical transitions as well as the accompanying high-temperature superconductivity.
We numerically investigate dynamic critical behaviors of two-dimensional (2D) Josephson-junction arrays with positional disorder in the scheme of the resistively shunted junction dynamics. Large-scale computation of the current-voltage characteristics reveals evidence supporting that a phase transition occurs at a nonzero critical temperature in the strong disorder regime, as well as in the weak disorder regime. The phase transition at weak disorder appears to belong to the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) type. In contrast, evidence for a non-BKT transition is found in the strong disorder regime. These results are consistent with the recent experiment on positionally disordered Josephson-junction arrays; in particular, the critical temperature of the non-BKT transition (ranging from 0.265 down to the minimum 0.22 in units of EJ∕kB{E}_{J}∕{k}_{B}EJ​∕kB​ with the Josephson coupling strength EJ{E}_{J}EJ​), the correlation length critical exponent $\ensuremath{\nu}=1.2$, and the dynamic critical exponent z=2.0z=2.0z=2.0 in the strong disorder regime agree with the existing studies of the 2D gauge-glass model.
Measurements of the IV characteristics of site-diluted Josephson-junction arrays have revealed intriguing effects of percolative disorder on the phase transition and the vortex dynamics in a two-dimensional XY system. Different from other types of phase transitions, the Kosterlitz-Thouless transition was eliminated with the introduction of percolative disorder far below the percolation threshold. Even after the Kosterlitz-Thouless order had been removed, the system remained superconducting at low temperatures by establishing a different type of order. Near the percolation threshold, evidence was found that, as a consequence of the underlying fractal structure, the critical dynamics of the phase degrees of freedom persisted down to zero temperature.
We show that dissipative Josephson junction arrays, an extended system, have an unusual ``floating'' metal phase in which the states of local (0+1)(0+1)(0+1)-dimensional elements (single junctions) can slide past each other despite arbitrary range spatial couplings among them. The zero-temperature metal-to-superconductor quantum phase transition is controlled in any dimension by a locus of critical points fixed only by the local lattice topology. Our theory can be tested by measuring $I\text{\ensuremath{-}}V$ characteristics. This may be the simplest and most natural example of a floating phase.
Earlier Monte Carlo calculations on the dissipative two-dimensional XY model are extended in several directions. We study the phase diagram and the correlation functions when dissipation is very small, where it has properties of the classical 3D-XY transition, i.e., one with a dynamical critical exponent z=1z=1z=1. The transition changes from z=1z=1z=1 to the class of criticality with $z\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}$ driven by topological defects, discovered earlier, beyond a critical dissipation. We also find that the critical correlations have power-law singularities as a function of tuning the ratio of the kinetic energy to the potential energy for fixed large dissipation, as opposed to essential singularities on tuning dissipation keeping the former fixed. A phase with temporal disorder but spatial order of the Kosterlitz-Thouless form is also further investigated. We also present results for the transition when the allowed Caldeira-Leggett form of dissipation and the allowed form of dissipation coupling to the compact rotor variables are both included. The nature of the transition is then determined by the Caldeira-Leggett form.