Finding the Elusive Sliding Phase in the Superfluid-Normal Phase Transition Smeared by c-Axis Disorder

David Pekker, Gil Refael, and Eugene Demler
Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 085302 – Published 20 August 2010

Abstract

We consider a stack of weakly Josephson coupled superfluid layers with c-axis disorder in the form of random superfluid stiffnesses and vortex fugacities in each layer as well as random interlayer coupling strengths. In the absence of disorder this system has a 3D XY type superfluid-normal phase transition as a function of temperature. We develop a functional renormalization group to treat the effects of disorder, and demonstrate that the disorder results in the smearing of the superfluid-normal phase transition via the formation of a Griffiths phase. Remarkably, in the Griffiths phase, the emergent power-law distribution of the interlayer couplings gives rise to a sliding Griffiths superfluid, with a finite stiffness in the ab direction along the layers, and a vanishing stiffness perpendicular to it.

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  • Received 2 April 2010

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.085302

© 2010 The American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

David Pekker1, Gil Refael2, and Eugene Demler1

  • 1Physics Department, Harvard University, 17 Oxford Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA
  • 2Physics Department, California Institute of Technology, MC 114-36, 1200 E. California Blvd., Pasadena, California 91125, USA

See Also

Anomalously Elastic Intermediate Phase in Randomly Layered Superfluids, Superconductors, and Planar Magnets

Priyanka Mohan, Paul M. Goldbart, Rajesh Narayanan, John Toner, and Thomas Vojta
Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 085301 (2010)

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Vol. 105, Iss. 8 — 20 August 2010

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