Seminar:Time reversal symmetry breaking and orbital magnetism and Kerr effect in unconventional superconductors

Professor James Annett  

School of Physics, University of Bristol 

Time: 16：30-17：30，Monday，January. 7，2019

Location:  Room 242，East Building 4，Zijingang Campus 

Abstract

The Kerr effect in unconventional superconductors such as Sr2RuO4 can be understood as a result of chiral p-wave pairing in a coupled multi-band system. The combination of these lead to Berry curvatures in the quasiparticle eigenfunctions which can be linked to the relevant optical matrix elements describing the Kerr response. We further show that a bulk orbital magnetic moment also arises in this system, which can also be derived from Berry curvatures in the quasiparticle spectra. We also discuss the possible application of these ideas or other mechanisms of time reversal symmetry breaking which might occur in other recently discovered superconductors showing evidence for time reversal symmetry breaking below Tc such as LaNiC2, LaNiGa2 and Re6Zr.