Ultrasonic attenuation in magnetic fields for superconducting states with line nodes in Sr2RuO4

Abstract

We calculate the ultrasonic attenuation in magnetic fields for superconducting states with line nodes vertical or horizontal relative to the RuO_2 planes. This theory, which is valid for fields near Hc2 and not too low temperatures, takes into account the effects of supercurrent flow and Andreev scattering by the Abrikosov vortex lattice. For rotating in-plane field H(theta) the attenuation alpha(theta)exhibits variations of fourfold symmetry in the rotation angle theta. In the case of vertical nodes, the transverse T100 sound mode yields the weakest(linear)H and T dependence of alpha, while the longitudinal L100 mode yields a stronger (quadratic) H and T dependence. This is in strong contrast to the case of horizontal line nodes where alpha is the same for the T100 and L100 modes (apart from a shift of pi/4 in field direction) and is roughly a quadratic function of H and T. Thus we conclude that measurements of alpha in in-plane magnetic fields for different in-plane sound modes may be an important tool for probing the nodal structure of the gap in Sr_2RuO_4.