Quasi-one-dimensional pair density wave superconducting state

Abstract

We provide a quasi-one-dimensional model which can support a pair-density-wave (PDW) state, in which the superconducting (SC) order parameter modulates periodically in space, with gapless Bogoliubov quasiparticle excitations. The model consists of an array of strongly-interacting one-dimensional systems, where the one-dimensional systems are coupled to each other by local interactions and tunneling of the electrons and Cooper pairs between them. Within the interchain mean-field theory, we find several SC states from the model, including a conventional uniform SC state, PDW SC state, and a coexisting phase of the uniform SC and PDW states. In this quasi-1D regime we can treat the strong correlation physics essentially exactly using bosonization methods and the crossover to the 2D system by means of interchain mean field theory. The resulting critical temperatures of the SC phases generically exhibit a power-law scaling with the coupling constants of the array, instead of the essential singularity found in weak-coupling BCS-type theories. Electronic excitations with an open Fermi surface, which emerge from the electronic Luttinger liquid systems below their crossover temperature to the Fermi liquid, are then coupled to the SC order parameters via the proximity effect. From the Fermi surface thus coupled to the SC order parameters, we calculate the quasiparticle spectrum in detail. We show that the quasiparticle spectrum can be fully gapped or nodal in the uniform SC phase and also in the coexisting phase of the uniform SC and PDW parameters. In the pure PDW state, the excitation spectrum has a reconstructed Fermi surface in the form of Fermi pockets of Bogoliubov quasiparticles.