Condensed Matter Physics Seminar

2 p.m., Thursday, November 10, 2005
Room 1201, Physics Building

 Comparative analysis of the pairing symmetries in Sr2RuO4 and NaxCoO2

Igor Mazin

(Naval Research Laboratory)

Abstract:  It is believed that Sr2RuO4 is a triplet chiral superconductor, which is supposed to be firmly established by the Knight shift and phase- sensitive Josephson tunneling experiments. It is also believed that the current state of experimental studies put little, if any, restrictions on the pairing symmetry in NaxCoO2, which arguably holds the record for the number of different symmetries proposed for one compound. I will argue that both beliefs are unfounded, namely, all existing experiments for Sr2RuO4 are as compatible with a singlet chiral d-state as they are with the accepted p-state, and that one can reasonably confidently exclude most of the states, allowed by symmetry in NaxCoO2. Interestingly, all remaining states are either f-wave or even more exotic odd-frequency gap state (e.g., triplet s), thus making NaxCoO2 the most unconventional superconductor known so far.
Host:  Yakovenko
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