Local condensation of charge-$4e$ superconductivity at a nematic domain wall

Abstract

In the fluctuation regime that precedes the onset of pairing in multi-component superconductors, such as nematic and chiral superconductors, the normal state is generally unstable towards the formation of charge-$4e$ order $-$ an exotic quantum state in which electrons form coherent quartets rather than Cooper pairs. However, charge-$4e$ order is often suppressed by other competing composite orders, such as nematics. Importantly, the formation of nematic domains is unavoidable due to the long-range strains generated, leading to one-dimensional regions where the competing nematic order is suppressed. Here, we employ a real-space variational approach to demonstrate that, in such nematic domain walls, charge-$4e$ order is locally condensed via a vestigial-order mechanism. We explore the experimental manifestations of this effect and discuss materials in which it can be potentially observed.

8 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (20)

• Theory of Intertwined Orders in High Temperature Superconductors
• A superconductor to superfluid phase transition in liquid metallic hydrogen
• The Order Parameter for the Superconducting Phases of UPt${}_3$
• Charge $4e$ superconductivity from pair density wave order in certain high temperature superconductors
• Observation of broken time-reversal symmetry in the heavy fermion superconductor UPt${}_3$
• Odd-parity topological superconductor with nematic order: Application to CuxBi2Se3
• Competing orders in one dimensional spin 3/2 fermionic systems
• Topological defects and the superfluid transition of the $s=1$ spinor condensate in two dimensions
• Spin-triplet superconductivity at the onset of isospin order in biased bilayer graphene
• Pairing symmetry of twisted bilayer graphene: a phenomenological synthesis
• Charge-$4e$ superconductivity from nematic superconductors in 2D and 3D
• Quasi-particle evidence for the nematic state above $T_{\mathrm{c}}$ in Sr${}_x$Bi${}_2$Se${}_3$
• Stabilizing fluctuating spin-triplet superconductivity in graphene via induced spin-orbit coupling
• Weak-Coupling Theory of Pair Density-Wave Instabilities in Transition Metal Dichalcogenides
• Solvable model for a charge-$4e$ superconductor
• Chiral liquid phase of simple quantum magnets
• Cascade of vestigial orders in two-component superconductors: nematic, ferromagnetic, s-wave charge-4e, and d-wave charge-4e states
• Vestigial singlet pairing in a fluctuating magnetic triplet superconductor: Applications to graphene moiré systems
• High-order Time-Reversal Symmetry Breaking Normal State
• Non-degenerate surface pair density wave in the Kagome superconductor CsV${}_3$Sb${}_5$ -- application to vestigial orders

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Nematic Superconductivity and Its Critical Vestigial Phases in the Quasi-crystal
• Vestigial $d$-wave charge-$4e$ Superconductivity from Bidirectional Pair Density Waves