Gap structure probed by field-angle resolved thermal oscillations in CeCoIn5 superconductor

ORAL

Abstract

We calculate the angle-resolved oscillations of the specific heat and thermal conductivity in a rotating in-plane magnetic field in the multiband superconductor CeCoIn$_5$ using realistic tight-binding Fermi surfaces. We find that an electron pocket at the $M$ point and a hole pocket at the $\Gamma$ point of the Brillouin zone yield sufficiently large Fermi surface anisotropies to produce fourfold oscillations not only for $d$-wave pairing, but also for $s$-wave pairing in the regime where our approximations are valid for both nodal and isotropic gap, namely near the upper critical field $H_{c2}$ and down to fields of order $H_{c2}/2$. More importantly, in this region we find a sign reversal in the oscillations as a function of temperature and fixed field for all gap symmetries investigated. We compare our results with available data on CeCoIn$_5$ and CeIrIn$_5$ and discuss how Fermi surface anisotropies affect the identification of gap structures and symmetries.

*Supported by the U.S. DOE under Contract No. DE-AC52-06NA25396.

Authors

  • Matthias J. Graf

    • Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA
    • Los Alamos National Laboratory
  • T. Das

    • Los Alamos National Laboratory
    • LANL
    • Los Alamos National Lab.
  • Anton B. Vorontsov

    • Montana State Univ.
  • Ilya Vekhter

    • Louisiana State Univ.
    • Louisiana State University
    • Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA