McGill.CA / Science / Department of Physics

CPM Seminar

Experimental Tests of the SO(5)
Theory of High Temperature Superconductivity

John Berlinsky

McMaster University

Zhang's SO(5) theory provides and elegant framework for understanding the interplay of antiferromagnetism and d-wave superconductivity in the high Tc suprates. It also makes a number of predictions which can be tested experimentally. This talk will describe two such predictions: (1) the occurrence of antiferromagnetic vortex cores in under-doped materials and (2) the possibility of constructing heterostructures, such as S-A-S sandwiches, in which the presence of strong S outer layers "rotates" the A region into the superconducting direction. Such a heterostructure is predicted to undergo a Freederickxz-like transition (analogous to a nematic liquid crystal confined between two anchoring glass sheets in a perpendicular field) as a function of A-layer thickness and of applied supercurrent.

Thursday, October 23rd, 15:30
Ernest Rutherford Physics Building, room 114