Nonlocal electrodynamics and the penetration depth of superconducting Sr$_2$RuO$_4$

Abstract

The thermal quasiparticles in a clean type-II superconductor with line nodes give rise to a quadratic low-temperature change of the penetration depth, $\Delta \lambda \sim T^2$, as first shown by Kosztin and Leggett [I. Kosztin and A. J. Leggett, Phys. Rev. Lett. 79, 135 (1997)]. Here, we generalize this result to multiple nodes and compare it to numerically exact evaluations of the temperature-dependent penetration depth in Sr$_2$RuO$_4$ using a high-precision tight-binding model. We compare the calculations to recent penetration depth measurements in high purity single crystals of Sr$_2$RuO$_4$ [J. F. Landaeta et al., arXiv:2312.05129]. When assuming the order parameter to have $\mathrm{B}_{1\mathrm{g}}$ symmetry, we find that both a simple $d_{x^2-y^2}$-wave and complicated gap structures with contributions from higher harmonics and accidental nodes can accommodate the experimental data.