Breaking of Ginzburg-Landau description in the temperature dependence of the anisotropy in the nematic superconductor

Abstract

Nematic superconductors are characterized by an apparent crystal symmetry breaking that results in the anisotropy of the in-plane upper critical magnetic field $H_{c2}$. The symmetry breaking is usually attributed to the strain of the crystal lattice. The nature and the value of the strain are debatable. We perform systematic measurements of the $H_{c2}$ anisotropy in the high-quality Sr${}_x$Bi${}_2$Se${}_3$ single crystals in the temperature range 1.8~K$<T<T_c\approx 2.7$~K using temperature stabilization with an accuracy of 0.0001 K. We observe that in all tested samples the anisotropy is weakly temperature dependent when $T<0.8T_c$ and smoothly decreases at higher temperatures without any sign of singularity when $T\to T_c$. Such a behavior {is in a drastic contradiction with the prediction of} the Ginzburg-Landau theory for the nematic superconductors. We discuss possible reasons for this discrepancy.

8 pages, 5 figures (including Supplemental Material). Accepted to PRB

References in corpus (7)

• Twofold symmetry of $c$-axis resistivity in topological kagome superconductor CsV${}_3$Sb${}_5$ with in-plane rotating magnetic field
• Limits of the upper critical field in dirty two-gap superconductors
• Quasi-particle evidence for the nematic state above $T_{\mathrm{c}}$ in Sr${}_x$Bi${}_2$Se${}_3$
• Direction and symmetry transition of the vector order parameter in topological superconductors Cu${}_x$Bi${}_2$Se${}_3$
• Link between superconductivity and a Lifshitz transition in intercalated Bi${}_2$Se${}_3$
• Crystal structure and distortion of superconducting Cu${}_x$Bi${}_2$Se${}_3$
• Spontaneous strain and magnetization in doped topological insulators with nematic and chiral superconductivity

Cited by in corpus (4)

• The absence of Ginzburg-Landau mechanism for vestigial order in the normal phase above a two-component superconductor
• On the existence of nematic-superconducting states in the Ginzburg-Landau regime
• Interaction between spin and Abrikosov vortices in doped topological insulators
• Anomalous Josephson Hall effect in doped topological insulators with the nematic superconductivity