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arXiv:2203.05478

Tighter upper bounds on the critical temperature of two-dimensional superconductors and superfluids: Approaching the supremum

Tingting Shi, Zhang, Wei, C. A. R. de Melo

Published Mar 10, 2022• 1 citation
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Abstract

We discuss standard and tighter upper bounds on the critical temperature $T_c$ of two-dimensional superconductors and superfluids versus particle density n or filling factor $ν$, under the assumption that the transition from the normal to the superconducting (superfluid) phase is governed by the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) mechanism of vortex-antivortex binding and a direct relation between the superfluid density tensor and $T_c$ exists. The standard critical temperature upper bound $T_c^{\rm up1}$ is obtained from the Glover-Ferrell-Tinkham sum rule for the optical conductivity, which constrains the superfluid density tensor components. However, we show that $T_c^{\rm up1}$ is only useful in the limit of low particle/carrier density, where it may be close to the critical temperature supremum $T_c^{\rm sup}$ . For intermediate and high particle/carrier densities, $T_c^{\rm up1}$ is far beyond $T_c^{\rm sup}$ for any given interaction strength. We demonstrate that it is imperative to consider at least the full effects of phase fluctuations of the order parameter for superconductivity (superfluidity) to establish tighter bounds over a wide range of densities. Using the renormalization group, we obtain the critical temperature supremum for phase fluctuations $T_c$ and show that it is a much tighter upper bound to $T_c^{\rm sup}$ than $T_c^{\rm up1}$ for all particle/carrier densities. We conclude by indicating that if the $T_c$ is exceeded in experiments involving single band systems, then a non-BKT mechanism must be invoked.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2203.05478

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We discuss standard and tighter upper bounds on the critical temperature TcT_cTc​ of two-dimensional (2D) superconductors and superfluids versus particle density nnn or filling factor ννν for continuum and lattice systems from the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) to Bose regime. We discuss only one-band Hamiltonians, where the transition from the normal to superconducting (superfluid) phase is governed by Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) mechanism of vortex-antivortex binding, such that a direct relation between the superfluid density tensor and TcT_cTc​ exists. We demonstrate that it is imperative to consider at least the full effect of phase fluctuations of order parameter for superconductivity (superfluidity) to establish tighter bounds. Using the renormalization group, we obtain phase-fluctuation critical temperature TcθT_c^θTcθ​, a much tighter upper bound to critical temperature supremum TcsupT_c^{\rm sup}Tcsup​ than standard critical temperature upper bound Tcup1T_c^{\rm up1}Tcup1​ from Ferrell-Glover-Tinkham sum rule. We go beyond textbook phase-fluctuation theories and show that chemical potential renormalization, order parameter equation, and Nelson-Kosterlitz relation need to be solved self-consistently and simultaneously with renormalization group flow equation to produce TcθT_c^θTcθ​ over the entire BCS-Bose crossover. We note that an analytic theory including modulus fluctuations of the order parameter valid throughout the BCS-Bose evolution is still lacking, but the inclusion of modulus fluctuations can only produce a critical temperature lower than TcθT_c^θTcθ​ and thus produce an even tighter bound to TcsupT_c^{\rm sup}Tcsup​. We conclude by indicating that if the measured critical temperature exceeds TcθT_c^θTcθ​ in experiments involving 2D single-band systems, then a non-BKT mechanism must be invoked to describe the superconducting (superfluid) transition.
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Abstract We discuss the evolution from Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) to Bose superconductivity vs . carrier density n in two-dimensional (2D) gated superconductors and address the fundamental role that the interaction range plays in the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition. We investigate the density dependence of the critical temperature ( T c ), superfluid density, order parameter modulus, chemical potential and pair size. Our most important finding is that it is absolutely essential to include classical and quantum phase fluctuations, as well as finite-ranged interactions to explain the non-monotonic behavior of T c vs . n and to guarantee that the upper bound on T c is not exceeded in 2D superconductors, as experimentally observed in (Nakagawa Y. et al. , Science , 372 (2021) 190), a lithium-intercalated layered nitride, and in magic-angle twisted trilayer graphene (Park J. M. et al. , Nature , 590 (2021) 249). Furthermore, we show that we can extract, from measurements of T c and the order parameter modulus, the effective mass of charge carriers and their interaction strength and range.