Order parameter in superconductors with non-degenerate bands

Abstract

In noncentrosymmetric metals, the spin degeneracy of the electronic bands is lifted by spin-orbit coupling. We consider general symmetry properties of the pairing function Delta(k) in noncentrosymmetric superconductors with spin-orbit coupling (NSC), including CePt3Si, UIr and Cd2Re2O7. We find that Delta(k) = chi(k) t(k), where chi(k) is an even function which transforms according to the irreducible representations of the crystallographic point group and t(k) is a model dependent phase factor. We consider tunnelling between a NSC and a conventional superconductor. It is found that, in terms of thermodynamical properties as well as the Josephson effect, the state of NSC resembles a singlet superconducting state with gap function chi(k).