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While the search of high Tc superconductivity was driven mostly by trial and error methodology searching for novel materials, here we provide a quasi-first-principle quantum theory for engineering superconductivity in artificial high-Tc superlattices (AHTS) with period d, ranging from 5.28 down to 3 nanometers, made of superconducting quantum wells of variable thickness L. An important feature of our quantum design is the key role of the interface internal electric field giving Rashba spin-orbit coupling (SOC) in the nanoscale quantum superconducting building blocks. By tuning the geometrical conformational parameter L/d around its magic ratio 2/3 we predict the superconducting dome of Tc versus doping characteristic of unconventional superconductors. Quantum size effects, controlled by L/d, change the energy width and splitting of two quantum subbands formed by the electronic space charge confined in superconducting nano-layers. The theoretical superconducting dome Tc versus charge density controlled by the Fano-Feshbach resonance between two superconducting gaps has been able to predict experimental results on cuprate AHTS by tuning the geometry of superlattices of quantum wells made of superconducting layers (S) of thickness L of modulation doped stoichiometric Mott insulator La2CuO4 with no chemical dopants, with interface space charge confined within normal metal (N) overdoped cuprate layers, Comment: 12 pages, 12 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2211.11547

Nonadiabatic effects in the electron-phonon coupling are important whenever the ratio between the phononic and the electronic energy scales, the adiabatic ratio, is non negligible. For superconducting systems, this gives rise to additional diagrams in the superconducting self-energy, the vertex and cross corrections. In this work we explore these corrections in a two-dimensional single-band system through the crossover between the weak-coupling BCS and strong-coupling Bose-Einstein regimes. By focusing on the pseudogap phase, we identify the parameter range in which the pairing amplitude is amplified by nonadiabatic effects and map them throughout the BCS-BEC crossover. These effects become stronger as the system is driven deeply in the crossover regime, for phonon frequencies of the order of the hopping energy and for large enough electron-phonon coupling. Finally, we provide the phase space regions in which the effects of nonadiabaticity are more relevant for unconventional superconductors., Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures

We study the amplitude and phase fluctuations of the Ginzburg-Landau quasi-order parameter for superconductors in two spatial dimensions. Starting from the mean-field critical temperature $T_{\mathrm{c}0}$, we calculate the beyond-mean-field critical temperature $T_{\rm c}$ by including thermal fluctuations of the quasi-order parameter within the Gaussian level. Moreover, from our beyond-mean field results, we derive the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless critical temperature $T_{\rm BKT}$, which takes into account topological vortex-antivortex excitations in the phase fluctuations as well as the amplitude fluctuations, to obtain the shifts of transition temperatures. We elucidate how the Gaussian thermal fluctuations and phase fluctuations associated with vortex excitations affect thermodynamic properties by determining the $H$-$T$ phase diagram for a type-II superconductor and computing the critical behaviors of the heat capacity, which are experimentally accessible, allowing the characterization of the cascade of different kinds of fluctuations in 2D superconductors., Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures

The Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transition in ultra-thin NbN films is investigated in the presence of weak perpendicular magnetic fields. A jump in the phase stiffness at the BKT transition is detected up to 5 G, while the BKT features are smeared between 5 G and 50 G, disappearing altogether at 100 G, where conventional current-voltage behaviour is observed. Our findings demonstrate that weak magnetic fields, insignificant in bulk systems, deeply affect our ultra-thin system, promoting a crossover from Halperin-Nelson fluctuations to a BCS-like state with Ginzburg-Landau fluctuations, as the field increases. This behavior is related to field-induced free vortices that screen the vortex-antivortex interaction and smear the BKT transition., Comment: 10 pages, 13 figures

Recent experiments on 2D superconductors allow the characterization of the critical temperature and of the phase diagram across the BCS-BEC crossover as a function of density. We obtain from these experiments the microscopic parameters of the superconducting state at low temperatures by the BCS mean-field approach. For Li$_x$ZrNCl, the extracted parameters are used to evaluate the superconducting phase stiffness and the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) critical temperature throughout the BCS-BEC crossover, by implementing the corresponding Renormalization Group (RG) approach. In this way, we make a quantitative test of the predictive power of the BKT theory for evaluating the critical temperature. The RG flow equations turn out to give a sizable renormalization of the phase stiffness and of the critical temperature, which is crucial to obtain a satisfactory agreement between the BKT theory and the experiments, in particular in the BCS-BEC crossover regime. We predict the temperature range where phase stiffness renormalization can be measured in Li$_x$ZrNCl across the BCS-BEC crossover. Contrary to other microscopic theories of superconductivity, we find that the BKT theory can be exploited to evaluate quantitatively the critical temperature of 2D superconductors in different pairing regimes., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures

In superconductivity, a surge of interests in enhancing $T_{\rm c}$ is ever mounting, where a recent focus is toward multi-band superconductivity. In $T_{\rm c}$ enhancements specific to two-band cases, especially around the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) to Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) crossover considered here, we have to be careful about how quantum fluctuations affect the many-body states, i.e., particle-hole fluctuations suppressing the pairing for attractive interactions. Here we explore how to circumvent the suppression by examining multichannel pairing interactions in two-band systems. With the Gor'kov-Melik-Barkhudarov (GMB) formalism for particle-hole fluctuations in a continuous space, we look into the case of a deep dispersive band accompanied by an incipient heavy-mass (i.e., quasi-flat) band. We find that, while the GMB corrections usually suppress $T_{\rm c}$ significantly, this in fact competes with the enhanced pairing arising from the heavy band, with the trade-off leading to a peaked structure in $T_{\rm c}$ against the band-mass ratio when the heavy band is incipient. The system then plunges into a strong-coupling regime with the GMB screening vastly suppressed. This occurs prominently when the chemical potential approaches the bound state lurking just below the heavy band, which can be viewed as a Fano-Feshbach resonance, with its width governed by the pair-exchange interaction. The diagrammatic structure comprising particle-particle and particle-hole channels is heavily entangled, so that the emergent Fano-Feshbach resonance dominates all the channels, suggesting a universal feature in multiband superconductivity., Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, Accepted version for Physical Review B

In the pursuit of higher critical temperature of superconductivity, quasi-flat electronic bands and van Hove singularities in two dimensions (2D) have emerged as a potential approach to enhance Cooper pairing on the basis of mean-field expectations. However, these special electronic features suppress the superfluid stiffness and, hence, the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transition in 2D superconducting systems, leading to the emergence of a significant pseudogap regime due to superconducting fluctuations. In the strong-coupling regime, one finds that superfluid stiffness is inversely proportional to the superconducting gap, which is the predominant factor contributing to the strong suppression of superfluid stiffness. Here we reveal that the aforementioned limitation is avoided in a 2D superconducting electronic system with a quasi-flat electronic band with a strong pairing strength coupled to a deep band with weak electronic pairing strength. Owing to the multiband effects, we demonstrate a screening-like mechanism that circumvents the suppression of the superfluid stiffness. We report the optimal conditions for achieving a large enhancement of the BKT transition temperature and a substantial shrinking of the pseudogap regime by tuning the intraband couplings and the pair-exchange coupling between the two band-condensates.

Two-dimensional superconductors and electron-hole superfluids in van der Waals heterostructures having tunable valence and conduction bands in the electronic spectrum are emerging as rich platforms to investigate novel quantum phases and topological phase transitions. In this work, by adopting a mean-field approach considering multiple-channel pairings and the Kosterlitz-Nelson criterion, we demonstrate giant amplifications of the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transition temperature and a shrinking of the pseudogap for small energy separations between the conduction and valence bands and small density of carriers in the conduction band. The presence of the holes in the valence band, generated by intra-band and pair-exchange couplings, contributes constructively to the phase stiffness of the total system, adding up to the phase stiffness of the conduction band electrons that is boosted as well, due to the presence of the valence band electrons. This strong cooperative effect avoids the suppression of the BKT transition temperature for low density of carriers, that occurs in single-band superconductors where only the conduction band is present. Thus, we predict that in this regime, multi-band superconducting and superfluid systems with valence and conduction bands can exhibit much larger BKT critical temperatures with respect to single-band and single-condensate systems., Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures

We investigate the correlations acting within the layers in a superfluid system of electron-hole spatially separated layers. In this system of quasi-dipoles, the dominant correlations are Hartree--Fock. We find in the BEC regime of the superfluid where screening is negligible, that the effect of the correlations on superfluid properties is also negligible. However, in the BCS-BEC crossover regime, where the screening plays a crucial role, we find that the superfluid gap is significantly weakened because the correlations significantly boost the number of low-energy particle-hole excitations participating in the screening process. Finally, the intralayer correlations are found in this system to suppress a predicted phenomenon in which the average pair size passes through a minimum as the crossover regime is traversed. In the presence of intralayer correlations, the minimum is either extremely weak or completely absent.

Two-band electronic structures with a valence and a conduction band separated by a tunable energy gap and with pairing of electrons in different channels can be relevant to investigate the properties of two-dimensional multiband superconductors and electron-hole superfluids, as monolayer FeSe, recently discovered superconducting bilayer graphene, and double-bilayer graphene electron-hole systems. This electronic configuration allows also to study the coexistence of superconductivity and charge density waves in connection with underdoped cuprates and transition metal dichalcogenides. By using a mean-field approach to study the system above mentioned, we have obtained numerical results for superconducting gaps, chemical potential, condensate fractions, coherence lengths, and superconducting mean-field critical temperature, considering a tunable band gap and different filling of the conduction band, for parametric choice of the pairing interactions. By tuning these quantities, the electrons redistribute among valence and conduction band in a complex way, leading to a new physics with respect to single-band superconductors, such as density induced and band-selective BCS-BEC crossover, quantum phase transitions, and hidden criticalities. At finite temperature, this phenomenon is also responsible for the non-monotonic behavior of the superconducting gaps resulting in a superconducting-normal state reentrant transition, without the need of disorder or magnetic effects., Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures

The toolbox to study the Universe grew on 14 September 2015 when the LIGO-Virgo collaboration heard a signal from two colliding black holes between 30-250 Hz. Since then, many more gravitational waves have been detected as detectors increased sensitivity. However, the current detector design sensitivity curves still have a lower cut-off of 10 Hz. To detect even lower-frequency gravitational-wave signals, the Lunar Gravitational-wave Antenna will use an array of seismic stations in a permanently shadowed crater. It aims to detect the differential between the elastic response of the Moon and the suspended inertial sensor proof mass motion induced by gravitational waves. A cryogenic superconducting inertial sensor is under development that aims for fm/rtHz sensitivity or better down to 1 Hz and is planned to be deployed in seismic stations. Here, we describe the current state of research towards the inertial sensor, its applications and additional auxiliary technologies in the payload of the lunar gravitational-wave detection mission.

Superconducting nanofilms are tunable systems that can host a 3D-2D dimensional crossover, leading to the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) superconducting transition approaching the 2D regime. Reducing further the dimensionality, from 2D to quasi-1D, superconducting nanostructures with disorder can generate quantum and thermal phase slips (PS) of the order parameter. Both BKT and PS are complex phase fluctuation phenomena of difficult experimental detection. Here, we have characterized superconducting NbN nanofilms thinner than 15 nm, on different substrates, by temperature dependent resistivity and current-voltage (I-V) characteristics. Our measurements have evidenced clear features related to the emergence of BKT transition and PS events. The contemporary observation in the same system of BKT transition and PS events and their tunable evolution in temperature and thickness, has been explained as due to the nano-conducting paths forming in a granular NbN system. In one of the investigated samples we have been able to trace and characterize the continuous evolution in temperature from quantum to thermal PS. Our analysis has established that the detected complex phase phenomena are strongly related to the interplay between the typical size of the nano-conductive paths and the superconducting coherence length., Comment: 22 pages, 14 figures

We theoretically investigate the superfluid-normal-state Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition in a binary mixture of bosonic atoms with Rabi coupling under balanced densities. We find the nonmonotonic behavior of the transition temperature with respect to the intercomponent coupling and amplification of the transition temperature for finite values of Rabi coupling, but for small intracomponent couplings. We develop the Nelson-Kosterlitz renormalization-group equations in the two-component Bose mixture and obtain the Nelson-Kosterlitz criterion modified by a fractional parameter, which is responsible for half-integer vortices, and by Rabi coupling. Adopting the renormalization-group approach, we clarify the dependence of the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition temperature on the Rabi coupling and the intercomponent coupling. Analysis of the first and second sound velocities also reveals the suppression of quasicrossing of the two sound modes with a finite Rabi coupling in the low-temperature regime. Our results for a two-dimensional binary Bose superfluid contribute to the understanding of a broad range of multicomponent quantum systems such as two-dimensional multiband superconductors., Comment: 8+4 pages, 3+1 figures; published version

Understanding the behaviour of vortices under nanoscale confinement in superconducting circuits is of importance for development of superconducting electronics and quantum technologies. Using numerical simulations based on the Ginzburg-Landau theory for non-homogeneous superconductivity in the presence of magnetic fields, we detail how lateral confinement organises vortices in a long superconducting nanostripe, and present a phase diagram of vortex configurations as a function of the stripe width and magnetic field. We discuss why average vortex density is reduced and reveal that confinement also has profound influence on vortex dynamics in the dissipative regime under sourced electrical current, mapping out transitions between asynchronous and synchronous vortex rows crossing the nanostripe as the current is varied. Synchronous crossings are of particular interest, since they cause single-mode modulations in the voltage drop along the stripe in a high (typically GHz-to-THz) frequency range., Comment: 17 pages, 13 figures

A supersolid, a counter-intuitive quantum state in which a rigid lattice of particles flows without resistance, has to date not been unambiguously realised. Here we reveal a supersolid ground state of excitons in a double-layer semiconductor heterostructure over a wide range of layer separations outside the focus of recent experiments. This supersolid conforms to the original Chester supersolid with one exciton per supersolid site, as distinct from the alternative version reported in cold-atom systems of a periodic modulation of the superfluid density. We provide the phase diagram augmented by the supersolid. This new phase appears at layer separations much smaller than the predicted exciton normal solid, and it persists up to a solid--solid transition where the quantum phase coherence collapses. The ranges of layer separations and exciton densities in our phase diagram are well within reach of the current experimental capabilities.

We investigate a Josephson junction in an electron-hole superfluid in a double layer TMD heterostructure. Observation of a critical tunneling current is a clear signature of superfluidity. In addition, we find the BCS-BEC crossover physics in the narrow barrier region controls the critical current across the entire system. The corresponding critical velocity, which is measurable in this system, has a maximum when the excitations pass from bosonic to fermionic. Remarkably, this occurs for the density at the boundary of the BEC to BCS-BEC crossover regime determined from the condensate fraction. This provides, for the first time in a semiconductor system, an experimental way to determine the position of this boundary.

The Lunar Gravitational--Wave Antenna is a proposed low-frequency gravitational-wave detector on the Moon surface. It will be composed of an array of high-end cryogenic superconducting inertial sensors (CSISs). A cryogenic environment will be used in combination with superconducting materials to open up pathways to low-loss actuators and sensor mechanics. CSIS revolutionizes the (cryogenic) inertial sensor field with a modelled displacement sensitivity at 0.5 Hz of 3 orders of magnitude better than the current state-of-the-art. It will allow the Lunar Gravitational-Wave Antenna to be sensitive below 1 Hz, down to 1 mHz and it will also be employed in the forthcoming Einstein Telescope --a third-generation gravitational-wave detector which will make use of cryogenic technologies and that will have an enhanced sensitivity below 10 Hz. Moreover, CSIS seismic data could also be employed to obtain new insights about the Moon interior and what we can call the Selene-physics.

Cu K edge X-ray absorption spectra of overdoped superconducting $YSr_2Cu_{2.75}Mo_{0.25}O_{7.54}$ and $Sr_2CuO_{3.3}$ show a remarkably strong correlation of their superconductivity with the local dynamics of their Cu-Sr and Cu-apical-O pairs. This finding that the entire alkaline earth cation-apical O "dielectric" layer has an active role in the unusual electronic properties of cuprates has not been previously considered and has far reaching implications. We develop this idea of a possible role for the apical oxygen charge dynamics via a soft mode of the Sr by applying Kuramoto's synchronization technique to exact diagonalization calculations of two neighboring Cu-apical O pairs bridged by Sr and a planar O atom. These calculations show a first order phase transition to a synchronized state of the Internal Quantum Tunneling Polarons (IQTPs) in which a fraction of the hole originally confined to the apical O atoms of the cluster is transferred onto the planar O. This combination of experimental results and theory demonstrates that the Sr-O dielectric layer of cuprates most likely plays an important role in high temperature superconductivity via its collective charge dynamics that extends into the $CuO_2$ conducting planes., Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures

A major open topic in cuprates is the interplay between the lattice and electronic dynamics and the importance of their coupling to the mechanism of high-temperature superconductivity (HTSC). As evidenced by Extended X-ray Absorption Fine Structure experiments (EXAFS), anharmonic structural effects are correlated with the charge dynamics and the transition to a superconducting phase in different HTSC compounds. Here we describe how structural anharmonic effects can be coupled to electronic and lattice dynamics in cuprate systems by performing the exact diagonalization of a prototype anharmonic many-body Hamiltonian on a relevant six-atom cluster and show that the EXAFS results can be understood as a Kuramoto synchronization between coupled internal quantum tunneling polarons associated with the two-site distribution of the copper-apical-oxygen ($Cu-O_{ap}$) pair in the dynamic structure. Furthermore, we find that this first order, anti-phase synchronization transition can be fine tuned by temperature and anharmonicity of the lattice vibrations, and promotes the pumping of charge, initially stored at the apical oxygen reservoirs, into the copper-oxide planes. Simultaneously, the internal quantum tunneling polaron extends to the copper-planar-oxygen ($Cu-O_{pl}$) pair. All these findings support an interpretation of the EXAFS data in terms of an effective, quantum mechanical triple-well-potential, which accurately represents the anti-phase synchronization of apical oxygens displacements and lattice-assisted charge transfer to the $CuO_2$ plane., Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures. Submitted to Physical Review B