Massless Leggett mode in three-band superconductors with time-reversal-symmetry breaking.
The Leggett mode associated with out-of-phase oscillations of the superconducting phase in multiband superconductors usually is heavy due to interband coupling, which makes its excitation and detection difficult. We report on the existence of a massless Leggett mode in three-band superconductors with time-reversal-symmetry breaking. The mass of this Leggett mode is small close to the time-reversal-symmetry-breaking transition and vanishes at the transition point, and thus locates within the smallest superconducting energy gap, which makes it stable and detectable, e.g., by means of the Raman spectroscopy. The thermodynamic consequences of this massless mode and possible realization in iron-based superconductors are also discussed.
International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (WPI-MANA), National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba 305-0044, Japan.
Shi-Zeng
SZ
Lin
Xiao
X
Hu