Topological defects, such as magnetic-flux-carrying quantum vortices, determine the magnetic response of superconductors and hence are of fundamental importance. Here, we show that stable CP2 skyrmions exist in three-band s + is superconductors as fully self-consistent solutions to a microscopic Bogoliubov-de Gennes model. This allows us to calculate microscopically the magnetic signatures of CP2 skyrmions and their footprint in the local density of states.

Magnetic field penetrates type-II bulk superconductors by forming quantum vortices that enclose a magnetic flux equal to the magnetic flux quantum. The flux quantum is a universal quantity that depends only on fundamental constants. In this study, we investigated isolated vortices in the hole-overdoped Ba1?xKxFe2As2 (x = 0.77) by using scanning superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometry. In many locations, we observed objects that carried only part of a flux quantum, with a magnitude that varied continuously with temperature. We demonstrated mobility and manipulability of these objects and interpreted them as quantum vortices with nonuniversally quantized (fractional) magnetic flux whose magnitude is determined by the temperature-dependent parameters of a multicomponent superconductor.

Topological defects, such as magnetic-flux-carrying quantum vortices determine the magnetic response of superconductors and hence are of fundamental importance. Here, we show that stable CP2 skyrmions exist in three-band s+is superconductors as fully self-consistent solutions to a microscopic Bogoluibov-de Gennes model. This allows us to calculate microscopically the magnetic signatures of CP2 skyrmions and their footprint in the local density of states.

We consider the interface between a BCS superconductor and non-superconducting band insulator. In the simplest example of a one-dimensional lattice model, we show that, under certain conditions, such interfaces can have an elevated superconducting critical temperature, without increasing the strength of pairing interaction at the interface. We identify the regimes where the interface critical temperature exceeds the critical temperature associated with a superconductor-vacuum interface.

We consider the interface between a Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer superconductor and nonsuperconducting band insulator. We show that under certain conditions, such interfaces can have an elevated superconducting critical temperature, without increasing the strength of the pairing interaction at the interface. We identify the regimes where the interface critical temperature exceeds the critical temperature associated with a superconductor vacuum interface.

We present a study of the basic microscopic model of a s-wave superconductor with frustrated interbandinteraction. When frustration is strong, such an interaction gives raise to a s + is state. This is a s-wave superconductor that spontaneously breaks time reversal symmetry. We show that in addition to the known s + is state,there is additional phase where the system’s bulk is a conventional s-wave state, but superconducting surfacestates break time reversal symmetry. Furthermore, we show that s + is superconductors can have spontaneousboundary currents and spontaneous magnetic fields. These arise at lower-dimensional boundaries, namely, thecorners in two-dimensional samples. This demonstrates that boundary currents effects in superconductors canarise in states which are not topological and not chiral according to the modern classification.

The magnetization process of a superconductor is determined by the potential barrier for vortex nucleation and escape. In multicomponent superconductors, fractional vortices with a winding in the phase of only one of the components can be stable topological solitons that carry a fraction of the flux quantum. While the formation of such objects in the bulk costs logarithmically or linearly divergent energy, these objects were shown to be stable near the samples' boundaries in the two-component London model. Therefore the conventional Bean-Livingston picture of magnetic flux entry does not apply to these superconductors, since the entry process can involve fractionalization of a vortex. In this paper, we address the nonlinear problem of determining the potential barrier for fluxoid penetration in a multicomponent superconductor, including the effects of various intercomponent couplings, by using the recently developed gauged string method. The method allows numerically exact (i.e., convergent) calculation of a sphaleron configuration in a gauge theory and thus the height of the nucleation barrier. We show how the fractionalized nucleation processes result in multiple sphalerons and intermediate states due to the complex shape of the energy landscape of multicomponent superconductors.

We present a microscopic study of the behavior of the order parameters near the boundaries of a two-band superconducting material, described by the standard tight-binding Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer model. We find superconducting surface states. The relative difference between bulk and surface critical temperatures is a nontrivial function of the interband coupling strength. For superconductors with weak interband coupling, boundaries induce variations of the gaps with the presence of multiple length scales, despite nonzero interband Josephson coupling.

The magnetization process of a superconductor is determined by the potential barrier for vortex nucleation and escape. In multicomponent superconductors, fractional vortices with a winding in the phase of only one of the components can be stable topological solitons that carry a fraction of the flux quantum. While the formation of such objects in the bulk costs logarithmically or linearly divergent energy, these objects were shown to be stable near samples' boundaries in the two-component London model. Therefore, the conventional Bean-Livingston picture of magnetic flux entry does not apply to these superconductors, since the entry process can involve fractionalization of a vortex. In this paper, we address the nonlinear problem of determining the potential barrier for fluxoid penetration in a multicomponent superconductor, including the effects of various intercomponent couplings, by using the recently developed gauged string method. The method allows numerically exact (i.e., convergent) calculation of a sphaleron configuration in a gauge theory and thus the height of the nucleation barrier. We show how the fractionalized nucleation processes result in multiple sphalerons and intermediate states due to the complex shape of the energy landscape of multicomponent superconductors.