Published January 11, 2024 | Version v1
Journal article

Ginzburg-Landau Theory of Flat-Band Superconductors with Quantum Metric

  • 1. Department of Physics, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong, China

Description

Recent experimental studies unveiled highly unconventional phenomena in the superconducting twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) with ultraflat bands, which cannot be described by the conventional BCS theory. For example, given the small Fermi velocity of the flat bands, the superconducting coherence length predicted by BCS theory is more than 20 times shorter than the measured values. A new theory is needed to understand many of the unconventional properties of flat-band superconductors. In this Letter, we establish a Ginzburg-Landau (GL) theory from a microscopic flat-band Hamiltonian. The GL theory shows how the properties of the physical quantities such as the critical temperature, superconducting coherence length, upper critical field, and superfluid density are governed by the quantum metric of the Bloch states. One key conclusion is that the superconducting coherence length is not determined by the Fermi velocity but by the size of the optimally localized Wannier functions which are limited by the quantum metric. Applying the theory to TBG, we calculated the superconducting coherence length and the upper critical fields. The results match the experimental ones well without fine-tuning of parameters. The established GL theory provides a new and general theoretical framework for understanding flat-band superconductors with the quantum metric.

Additional details

Identifiers

DOI
10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.026002;
arXiv
arXiv:2303.15504;
Crossref Funder ID
10.13039/501100002855; 10.13039/501100002920;

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Physical Review Letters
Journal Volume
132
Journal Issue
2
Journal Page Range
7 pgs.
ISSN
0031-9007

Optional Information

Copyright
© 2024 American Physical Society
Contract/Grant/Project number
2020YFA0309600; RFS2021-6S03; C6025-19G; AoE/P-701/20; 16310520; 16310219; 16307622; 16309718
Notes
Contact Email: chsh@ust.hk; Contact Email: phlaw@ust.hk; Record automatically processed
Funding organization
Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China; Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee