Crossover from the vortex state to the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov state in quasi-two-dimensional superconductors

Abstract

We examine the coexistence of the vortex state and the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) state in quasi-two-dimensional type-II superconductors and the crossover from the coexistence state to the pure FFLO state when the Maki parameter \alpha increases. The pure FFLO state, characterized by finite center-of-mass momenta q \ne 0 of Cooper pairs occurs in the two-dimensional limit, when the magnetic field is parallel to the conductive plane. The vectors q are determined from the Fermi-surface structure and pairing anisotropy, and become finite below a temperature T^*. In quasi-two-dimensions, because of the orbital pair-breaking effect, the coexistence state characterized by (n,q//) occurs, where n and q// denote the Landau level index of the vortex state and the wave number of the additional FFLO modulation along the magnetic field. We obtain the \alpha dependence of the upper critical field by numerical calculations. The upper critical field exhibits a cascade curve in the H-T phase diagram. It is analytically shown that n diverges in the two-dimensional limit \alpha \to \infty below T^*. In this limit, the upper critical field equation of the coexistence state is reduced to that of the FFLO state. A relation between n of the coexistence state and q_{\perp} of the pure FFLO state is obtained, where q_{\perp} denotes the component of q perpendicular to the magnetic field. It is found that the pure FFLO state is nothing but the vortex state with infinitely large n as is known in two-dimensional superconductors in a tilted magnetic field. The vortex state with large n can be regarded as the FFLO state with non-zero q_{\perp} in three dimensions.