Universal Bound to the Amplitude of the Vortex Nernst Signal in Superconductors

Carl Willem Rischau, Yuke Li, Benoît Fauqué, Hisashi Inoue, Minu Kim, Christopher Bell, Harold Y. Hwang, Aharon Kapitulnik, Kamran Behnia

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

A liquid of superconducting vortices generates a transverse thermoelectric response. This Nernst signal has a tail deep in the normal state due to superconducting fluctuations. Here, we present a study of the Nernst effect in two-dimensional heterostructures of Nb-doped strontium titanate (STO) and in amorphous MoGe. The Nernst signal generated by ephemeral Cooper pairs above the critical temperature has the magnitude expected by theory in STO. On the other hand, the peak amplitude of the vortex Nernst signal below Tc is comparable in both and in numerous other superconductors despite the large distribution of the critical temperature and the critical magnetic fields. In four superconductors belonging to different families, the maximum Nernst signal corresponds to an entropy per vortex per layer of ≈kBln2.

Original languageEnglish
Article number077001
JournalPhysical review letters
Volume126
Issue number7
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021 Feb 16

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Physics and Astronomy(all)

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