Seminars

Anomalous thermodynamic power laws in nodal superconductors

Speaker

Dr. Jorge Quintanilla
University of Kent, ISIS

Time and Place

Thursday, 28 February 2013 - 3:30pm
CSEC Seminar Room

Abstract 

Unconventional superconductors are most frequently identified by the observation of power-law behaviour on low-temperature thermodynamic or transport properties, such as specific heat. Here we show that, in addition to the usual point and line nodes, a much wider class of different nodal types can occur. These new types of nodes typically occur when there are transitions between different types of gap node topology, for example when point or line nodes first appear as a function of some physical parameter. We identify anomalous, non-integer thermodynamic power laws associated with these new nodal types, and give physical examples of superconductors in which they might be observed experimentally.