Space-time crystalline order of a high-critical-temperature superconductor with intrinsic Josephson junctions.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 34654801.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-021-26132-y and PMC identifier 8520017.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
We theoretically demonstrate that the high-critical-temperature (high-T<sub>c</sub>) superconductor Bi<sub>2</sub>Sr<sub>2</sub>CaCu<sub>2</sub>O<sub>8+x</sub> (BSCCO) is a natural candidate for the recently envisioned classical space-time crystal. BSCCO intrinsically forms a stack of Josephson junctions. Under a periodic parametric modulation of the Josephson critical current density, the Josephson currents develop coupled space-time crystalline order, breaking the continuous translational symmetry in both space and time. The modulation frequency and amplitude span a (nonequilibrium) phase diagram for a so-defined spatiotemporal order parameter, which displays rigid pattern formation within a particular region of the phase diagram. Based on our calculations using representative material properties, we propose a laser-modulation experiment to realize the predicted space-time crystalline behavior. Our findings bring new insight into the nature of space-time crystals and, more generally, into nonequilibrium driven condensed matter systems.