2012/05/16 by Jian-Huang She, Alexander V. Balatsky · 1 citation
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Condensed Matter Physics #Condensed matter physics #Effective mass (spring–mass system) #Electrical resistivity and conductivity #Electronic and Structural Properties of Oxides #Fermion #Magnetic field #Phase transition #Physics #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Quantum critical point #Quantum mechanics #Quantum phase transition #Superconductivity #Superlattice #Vortex #cond-mat.str-el #cond-mat.supr-con
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.109.077002
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 077002 (2012) · 7 pages, 6 figures
arxiv created 2012/05/16 · openalex publication_date 2012/08/16 · arxiv updated 2012/08/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We propose an explanation of the superconducting transitions discovered in the heavy-fermion superlattices by Mizukami et al. [Nature Phys. 7, 849 (2011)] in terms of Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transition. We observe that the effective mass mismatch between the heavy-fermion superconductor and the normal metal regions provides an effective barrier that enables quasi-2D superconductivity in such systems. We show that the resistivity data, both with and without magnetic field, are consistent with BKT transition. Furthermore, we study the influence of a nearby magnetic quantum critical point on the vortex system and find that the vortex core energy can be significantly reduced due to magnetic fluctuations. Further reduction of the gap with decreasing number of layers is understood as a result of pair breaking effect of Yb ions at the interface.