Fulde-Ferrell state in superconducting core/shell nanowires: role of the orbital effect

Abstract

The orbital effect on the Fulde-Ferrell (FF) phase is investigated in superconducting core/shell nanowires subjected to the axial magnetic field. The confinement in the radial direction results in the quantization of the electron motion with energies determined by the radial $j$ and orbital $m$ quantum numbers. In the external magnetic field the twofold degeneracy with respect to the orbital magnetic quantum number $m$ is lifted which leads to the Fermi wave vector mismatch between the paired electrons $(k,j,m,\uparrow )\leftrightarrow (-k,j,-m,\downarrow )$. This mismatch is transfered to the nonzero total momentum of the Cooper pairs which results in the formation of FF phase occurring sequentially with increasing magnetic field. By changing the nanowire radius $R$ and the superconducting shell thickness $d$, we discuss the role of the orbital effect in the FF phase formation in both the nanowire-like ($R/d\ll 1$) and nanofilm-like ($R/d\gg 1$) regime. We have found that the irregular pattern of the FF phase, which appears for the case of the nanowire-like regime, evolves towards the regular distribution, in which the FF phase stability regions appear periodically between the BCS state, for the nanofilm-like geometry. The crossover between these two different phase diagrams is explained as resulting from the orbital effect and the multigap character of superconductivity in core/shell nanowires.

arXiv comment10 pages, 7 figures

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