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arXiv:2105.12761 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B

Pairing and superconductivity in quasi-one-dimensional flat-band systems: Creutz and sawtooth lattices

Si Min Chan, Benoît Grémaud, G. G. Batrouni

Published Jan 5, 2022• 38 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We study the pairing and superconducting properties of the attractive Hubbard model in two quasi-one-dimensional topological lattices---the Creutz and sawtooth lattices---which share two peculiar properties: each of their band structures exhibits a flat band with a nontrivial winding number. The difference, however, is that only the Creutz lattice is genuinely topological, due to a chiral (sublattice) symmetry, resulting in a quantized winding number and zero energy edge modes for open boundary conditions. We use a multiband mean field and exact density matrix renormalization group in our work. Our three main results are as follows: (a) For both lattice systems, the superconducting weight, ${D}_{s}$, is linear in the coupling strength, $U$, for low values of $U$. (b) For small $U, {D}_{s}$ is proportional to the quantum metric for the Creutz system but not for the sawtooth system because its sublattices are not equivalent. We have therefore extended the approach to this more complex situation and found an excellent agreement with the numerical results. (c) At moderate and large $U$, the conventional BCS mean field is no longer appropriate for such systems with inequivalent sublattices. We show that, for a wide range of densities and coupling strengths, these systems are very well described by a full multiband mean-field method where the pairing parameters and the local particle densities on the inequivalent sublattices are variational mean-field parameters.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.105.024502

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We study the pairing and superconducting properties of the attractive Hubbard model in two quasi-one-dimensional topological lattices---the Creutz and sawtooth lattices---which share two peculiar properties: each of their band structures exhibits a flat band with a nontrivial winding number. The difference, however, is that only the Creutz lattice is genuinely topological, due to a chiral (sublattice) symmetry, resulting in a quantized winding number and zero energy edge modes for open boundary conditions. We use a multiband mean field and exact density matrix renormalization group in our work. Our three main results are as follows: (a) For both lattice systems, the superconducting weight, Ds{D}_{s}Ds​, is linear in the coupling strength, UUU, for low values of UUU. (b) For small U,DsU, {D}_{s}U,Ds​ is proportional to the quantum metric for the Creutz system but not for the sawtooth system because its sublattices are not equivalent. We have therefore extended the approach to this more complex situation and found an excellent agreement with the numerical results. (c) At moderate and large UUU, the conventional BCS mean field is no longer appropriate for such systems with inequivalent sublattices. We show that, for a wide range of densities and coupling strengths, these systems are very well described by a full multiband mean-field method where the pairing parameters and the local particle densities on the inequivalent sublattices are variational mean-field parameters.
We construct quasi-one-dimensional topological and nontopological three-band lattices with a tunable band gap and winding number of the flat band. Using full multiband mean field (MF) and exact density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) calculations, we show explicitly how the band gap affects pairing and superconductivity (SC) in a Hubbard model with attractive interactions. We obtain excellent agreement between MF and DMRG calculations. The SC weight Ds{D}_{s}Ds​ on the gapped topological, $W\ensuremath{\ne}0$, flat band increases linearly with interaction strength UUU for low values and with a slope that depends on the details of the compact localized state at U=0U=0U=0. As $U\ensuremath{\rightarrow}0$ for the gapped nontopological flat band (W=0W=0W=0), Ds{D}_{s}Ds​ decays with a power law faster than quadratically but slower than exponentially. In the gapless case (flat band touching the band above it), we find at low UUU (for both W=0W=0W=0 and $W\ensuremath{\ne}0$) that ${D}_{s}\ensuremath{\propto}{U}^{\ensuremath{\varphi}}$, with $\ensuremath{\varphi}<1$. In other words, Ds{D}_{s}Ds​ increases faster than linearly for low UUU, thus favoring SC at weak interaction more than the gapped case. Our results reestablish that the BCS mean field and quantum metric alone are insufficient to characterize SC at weak coupling.
We study the interplay between on-site disorder and fermion pairing on the quasi-one-dimensional flat-band Creutz lattice. Both disorder and flat bands localize particles, but an attractive interaction results in pair formation and delocalization giving rise to superconductivity. In this work, we examine the attractive Hubbard model on the Creutz lattice to study the competition between these two effects and elucidate the properties of the superconducting phase and the localization quantum phase transition as the disorder strength is increased. Our main result is that flat-band superconductivity is robust against disorder: The critical disorder strength Wc{W}_{c}Wc​ required to localize the fermion pairs and destroy superconductivity is finite at any interaction strength UUU and is proportional to the superconducting weight Ds{D}_{s}Ds​ of the clean system. Using large-scale density matrix renormalization group computations, we show that this transition is of the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless form. In addition, even at very small interaction strength, the localization is not due to single-fermion localization but to pair localization. For completeness, we briefly study this disorder-induced localization with mean field theory and show that Wc{W}_{c}Wc​ can be accurately determined by using an appropriate scaling function.
We use unbiased numerical methods to study the onset of pair superfluidity in a system that displays flat bands in the noninteracting regime. This is achieved by using a known example of flat band systems, namely, the Creutz lattice, where we investigate the role of local attractive interactions in the U<0U<0U<0 Hubbard model. Going beyond the standard approach used in these systems where weak interactions are considered, we map the superfluid behavior for a wide range of interaction strengths and exhibit a crossover between BCS and tightly bound bosonic fermion pairs. We further contrast these results with a standard two-leg fermionic ladder, showing that the pair correlations, although displaying algebraic decay in both cases, are longer ranged in the Creutz lattice, signifying the robustness of pairing in this system.
Abstract Flat-band systems provide an ideal platform for studying strong electron correlations, in which multiple quasi-degenerate charge orders frequently coexist. Motivated by this context, we investigate the pair-density-wave (PDW) superconducting state in a quasi-one-dimensional Creutz lattice featuring two strictly flat bands. Using a renormalized mean-field approach for the strongly correlated t - J model, we obtain self-consistent solutions that demonstrate a PDW phase—characterized by finite-center-of-mass-momentum Cooper pairing—coexisting with charge density wave (CDW) and bond density wave (BDW) orders. Physically, this coexistence phenomenon originates from the perfect band nesting inherent to the flat-band system, which allows for changes in the particle momentum distributions without energy cost. Here, a pure PDW solution without CDW and BDW orders emerges in the underdoped regime when magnetic effects are neglected, while strong Hubbard correlations favor a pure CDW phase. We conclude that a robust PDW phase, accompanied by CDW and BDW orders, occupies the majority of the parameter space. Furthermore, both the PDW order parameter and its critical temperature scale linearly with the superexchange coupling strength—a hallmark of flat-band superconductivity. Overall, our results reveal that a PDW superconducting state can be realized on the Creutz lattice with strong correlations.
We investigate pairing and superconductivity in the attractive Fermi-Hubbard model on the one-dimensional sawtooth lattice, which exhibits a flat band by fine-tuning the hopping rates. We first solve the two-body problem, both analytically and numerically, to extract the binding energy and the effective mass of the pairs. Based on the density matrix renormalization group method, we address the ground-state properties of the many-body system, assuming equal spin populations. We compare our results with those available for a linear chain, where the model is integrable by the Bethe ansatz, and we show that the multiband nature of the system substantially modifies the physics of the BCS-BEC crossover. We find that near a flat band, the chemical potential remains always close to its zero-density limit predicted by two-body physics. In contrast, the pairing gap exhibits a remarkably strong density dependence and, differently from the pair binding energy, it is no longer peaked at the flat-band point. We show that these results can be interpreted in terms of polarization screening effects, due to an anomalous attraction between pairs in the medium and single fermions. Importantly, we unveil that three-body bound states (trimers) exist in the sawtooth lattice, in sharp contrast with the linear chain geometry, and we compute their binding energy. The nature of these states is investigated via a strong-coupling variational approach, revealing that they originate from tunneling-induced exchange processes.
We study the coexistence of antiferromagnetism and unconventional superconductivity on the Creutz lattice which shows strictly flat bands in the noninteracting regime. The famous renormalized mean-field theory is used to deal with strong electron–electron repulsive Hubbard interaction in the effective low-energy t–J model, the superfluid weight of the unconventional superconducting state has been calculated via the linear response theory. An unconventional superconducting state with both spin-singlet and staggered spin-triplet pairs emerges beyond a critical antiferromagnetic coupling interaction, while antiferromagnetism accompanies this state. The superconducting state with only spin-singlet pairs is dominant with paramagnetic phase. The A phase is analogous to the pseudogap phase, which shows that electrons go to form pairs but do not cause a supercurrent. We also show the superfluid behavior of the unconventional superconducting state and its critical temperature. It is proven directly that the flat band can effectively raise the critical temperature of superconductivity. It is implementable to simulate and control strongly-correlated electrons’ behavior on the Creutz lattice in the ultracold atoms experiment or other artificial structures. Our results may help the understanding of the interplay between unconventional superconductivity and magnetism.