On Josephson effects in insulating spin systems

DOI10.1016/J.AOP.2012.04.004MaRDI QIDQ713275zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Andreas Schilling, Henrik Grundmann

Publication date 26 October 2012

Published in Annals of Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1101.1811, https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/72328/1/3.pdf

Bose-Einstein condensate chemical potential Josephson junction macroscopic wavefunction triplet bosonic quasiparticle

Experimental work for problems pertaining to statistical mechanics (82-05) Statistical mechanics of magnetic materials (82D40) Statistical mechanics of superconductors (82D55)

Abstract: We discuss an experiment in which two magnetic insulators that both show a field-induced magnetic-ordering transition are weakly coupled to one another and are placed into an ex- ternal magnetic field. If the respective magnetic states can be interpreted as phase coherent Bose-Einstein condensates of magnetic bosonic quasiparticles, one expects the occurrence of Josephson effects. For two identical systems, the resulting d.c. Josephson effect formally represents a constant quasiparticle Josephson current across the weak link, which turns out to be unobservable in an experiment. For magnetic insulators with different critical fields, a spontaneous alternating quasiparticle current develops with a leading oscillation frequency {omega}a.c. that is determined by the difference between the critical fields. As a result of the coupling, additional sidebands appear in the energy spectrum of the coupled device that would be absent without phase coherence. We discuss the primary conditions for such an effect to take place and conclude that its detection can be feasible for a proper choice of compounds with suitable and realistic material parameters.

Review text

The paper proposes an experiment to probe the macroscopic phase coherence in insulating spin systems by observing the ac Josephson effect across a weak link. A successful detection of this effect would represent a direct proof for the existence of a macroscopic quantum state. First, there is a discussion on the macroscopic wavefunction and the chemical potential of a triplet bosonic quasiparticle (triplon) Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) in a magnetic insulator at zero temperature. In the case of an axially symmetric spin system, it is discussed a contrast to the time-dependent global phase of the macroscopic wavefunction and resolving this discrepancy. In order to investigate possible analogues to the dc and ac Josephson effects two condensates are brought into contact. It is considered whether or not the proposed definition of the chemical potential is actually applicable for treating such an experiment correctly. It is shown that a steady non-zero difference between chemical potentials of two BECs can be considered as the analogue to an external voltage controlling the difference between the chemical potentials in a superconducting Josephson junction. Then, the authors consider the Josephson equations for a system of two weakly coupled triplon BECs and show how the ac Josephson effect can be identified in principle. Initially, it is assumed a perfect axial symmetry of the two magnetic systems with respect to the direction of the external magnetic field. Then, the authors discuss several constraints for a system with realistic material parameters. In particular, it is discussed a violation of axial symmetry of the magnetic exchange interaction leading to the occurrence of an anisotropy gap in the energy spectrum. The numerical results are obtained for a model device composed of Ba3Cr2O8 separated by nonmagnetic isostructural Ba3V2O8 from a compound Ba3-xSrxCr2O8. Finally, realistic assumptions are presented that above experiment is indeed feasible.

Recommendations

Cites work

Cited in

(4)

This page was built for publication: On Josephson effects in insulating spin systems

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q713275)