Recent developments in non-centrosymmetric superconductors

6 July 2009 (Mon), 10:30 – 12:00

8F large seminar room, Sengen site

Prof. Manfred Sigrist

Theoretische Physik, ETH Zurich(スイス連邦工科大学チューリッヒ校理論物理学研究所)

Recent developments in non-centrosymmetric superconductors

The absence of inversion symmetry in a metal influences the electronic spectrum drastically through spin-orbit coupling by spin-splitting of the states. This affects superconductivity in a special way through a novel Cooper pairing symmetry which is non-unitary and has mixed-parity nature. The study of this type of superconductivity has been mainly motivated by the recent discovery of a number of noncentrosymmetric heavy fermion superconductors, such as CePt3 Si, CeRhSi3 or CeIrSi3 . In this talk I will present the basic concepts of non-centrosymmetric superconductivity and explore some experimental implications for the superconducting phase. In particular, properties in high magnetic fields, the electronic states at twin boundaries and surfaces will be discussed.

Dr. Katsunori Wakabayashi(若林克法)