Inhomogeneous Superconductivity in Organic and Related Superconductors

Abstract

Evidence of inhomogeneous superconductivity, in this case superconductivity with a spatially modulated superconducting order parameter, has now been found in many materials and by many measurement methods. Although the evidence is strong, it is circumstantial in the organic superconductors, scant in the pnictides, and complex in the heavy Fermions. However, it is clear some form of exotic superconductivity exists at high fields and low temperatures in many electronically anisotropic superconductors. The evidence is reviewed in this article, and examples of similar measurements are compared across different families of superconductors. An effort is made to find a consistent way to measure the superconducting energy gap across all materials, and use this value to predict the Clogston–Chandrasakhar paramagnetic limit Hp. Methods for predicting the existence of inhomogeneous superconductivity are shown to work for the organic superconductors, and then used to suggest new materials to study.