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# Sub-unit cell layer-by-layer growth of Fe3O4, MgO, and Sr2RuO4 thin films

(received August 23, 2002)

## Abstract

The use of oxide materials in oxide electronics requires their controlled epitaxial growth. Recently, it was shown that Reflection High Energy Electron Diffraction (RHEED) allows to monitor the growth of oxide thin films even at high oxygen pressure. Here, we report the sub-unit cell molecular or block layer growth of the oxide materials Sr2RuO4, MgO, and magnetite using Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) from stoichiometric targets. Whereas for perovskites such as SrTiO3 or doped LaMnO3 a single RHEED intensity oscillation is found to correspond to the growth of a single unit cell, in materials where the unit cell is composed of several molecular layers or blocks with identical stoichiometry, a sub-unit cell molecular or block layer growth is established resulting in several RHEED intensity oscillations during the growth of a single unit-cell.

The physical properties of thin films are strongly influenced by their microstructure and morphology which, in turn, are determined by the deposition conditions and the growth mode. RHEED has proven to be a useful surface sensitive tool for monitoring in situ the growth of semiconductor thin films Lagally:93 . RHEED has also been successfully used for studying the growth of the complex copper oxide superconductors under high vacuum conditions Terashima:90 ; Karl:92 ; Bozovic:95 . Recently, high pressure RHEED systems have been developed allowing for the analysis of oxide thin films grown by Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) at high oxygen partial pressure of up to several 10 Pa Rijnders:97 ; Klein:99 . A common way of using RHEED in the analysis of thin film growth is the observation of the electron diffraction pattern during epitaxial growth. In this case intensity oscillations of the diffraction spots are associated with a layer-by-layer or Frank-van der Merwe growth mode Terashima:90 . The deposited material nucleates on the substrate surface forming two dimensional islands which are coalescing with increasing coverage. This process results in a periodic roughening and flattening of the film surface translating into RHEED intensity oscillations.

In this Letter, we report on the study of RHEED intensity oscillations during the PLD growth of the oxides materials Sr2RuO4, MgO, and magnetite (Fe3O4) from stoichiometric targets. We have used an ultra high vacuum Laser Molecular Beam Epitaxy (L-MBE) system with in-situ high pressure RHEED and a 248 nm KrF excimer laser Gross:2000a . It is well known that due to the ionic bond character in oxides the different atomic layers in general will not be charge neutral and therefore the energetically most favorable growth unit often is a molecular layer which is composed of one or several atomic layers to obtain charge neutrality. Therefore, molecular layer or block layer epitaxyGross:2000a  is established for most oxides, whereas atomic layer epitaxy is common for semiconductor superlattice growth. Our results clearly show that under suitable deposition conditions a molecular or block layer growth is indeed established for MgO, Sr2RuO4 and Fe3O4. However, in the present study the observed thickness of the charge neutral molecular layers is exceeding that of the minimum charge neutral building blocks of the respective material, since stoichiometric targets have been used in the PLD process. In this case, the minimum observed building blocks are those satisfying both the requirement of charge neutrality and the chemical composition supplied from the stoichiometric target material. Let us illustrate this for the example of SrTiO3. This material can be grown both in alternating charge neutral SrO and TiO2 molecular layers supplied from SrO and TiO2 targets, and in SrTiO3 layers provided from a stoichiometric target. Note that in the first case every molecular layer will produce a RHEED intensity oscillation resulting in two RHEED oscillations per unit cell. In contrast, in the latter case only a single oscillation per unit cell is observed, since SrO and TiO2 are supplied simultaneously and the minimum charge neutral block compatible with the supplied stoichiometry consists of the whole unit cell. We observed an equivalent behavior for the growth of MgO, Sr2RuO4, and Fe3O4 using stoichiometric targets. Due to the complex unit cells of MgO and Sr2RuO4 consisting of identical stoichiometric layers shifted by lattice translations two RHEED oscillations per unit cell are observed. For Fe3O4, the unit cells consists of even 4 stoichiometric sub-units resulting in 4 RHEED oscillations per unit cell.

We first discuss the growth of the unconventional superconductor Sr2RuO4. This material is isostructural to La2CuO4, which already has been studied by RHEED Terashima:90 . For structural reasons, a similar growth is expected for both materials. Fig. 1 shows the RHEED intensity oscillations of the $`(0,0)`$ diffraction spot recorded during the PLD growth of a $`c`$-axis oriented Sr2RuO4 film on a NdGaO3 substrate. The layer-by-layer growth mode is achieved for a substrate temperature $`T_S=950^{}`$C, an oxygen pressure of $`p_{O_2}=20`$ mTorr, a laser repetition rate of $`f_L=5`$ Hz, and a laser energy density on the target of $`P_L=1.2`$ J/cm2. RHEED was performed with 15 keV electrons at an incident angle of $`2.2^{}`$. To obtain the number of RHEED oscillations per unit cell, the film thickness has been determined precisely by X-ray reflectometry and then divided by the number of observed RHEED oscillations. The derived block thickness corresponds to half a unit cell ($`c/2=6.39`$Å). Considering the crystal structure shown in the inset of Fig. 1, this result is intuitive: The unit cell consists of two identical layers which are displaced within the $`ab`$-plane by $`(𝐚+𝐛)/2`$, where $`𝐚`$ and $`𝐛`$ are the in-plane lattice vectors. Note that after the third oscillation the intensity of the maxima remains about constant. The growth can be stopped and continued with almost unchanged modulation depth. After a certain film thickness the oscillations start to flatten out with an overall decrease of reflected intensity due to surface roughening because of a transition to island growth. The layer-by-layer growth mode can be re-established by thermal annealing. An interesting feature is that the RHEED intensity starts to increase immediately after starting the PLD process. However, this effect is only present for starting the growth on the substrate, but is absent for starting on the surface of an already grown Sr2RuO4 film. Therefore, we believe that this effect is not related to the diffraction conditions, but more likely to a change of the surface structure and morphology of the substrate due to the partial coverage with the thin film material. A similar effect has been observed for isostructural La2CuO4 Terashima:90  as well as for GaAs Dobson:87 . We finally note, that our high quality Sr2RuO4 films have lower resistivity values ($`\rho 20\mu \mathrm{\Omega }`$cm at 300 mK) than those reported so far in literature Schlom:98 . However, these values are still about ten times larger than those required for superconductivity ($`\rho 1.5\mu \mathrm{\Omega }`$cm).

As the second example we discuss the growth of a MgO cap layer on a magnetite thin film, which will be discussed below. Both films were grown under the same growth conditions ($`T_S=330^{}`$C, $`p_{\mathrm{Ar}}=2\times 10^3`$ mbar, $`f_L=2`$ Hz, and $`P_L5`$ J/cm2) leading for both materials to a layer-by-layer growth mode. First the magnetite thin film was grown on a MgO substrate with atomically flat surface (3 Å rms roughness) followed by the MgO cap layer. Fig. 2 shows X-ray reflectometry data of a Fe3O4 (36 nm)/MgO (9 nm) bilayer. Fitting the datarefsim  gives the thickness of the MgO and Fe3O4 layers with an error of less than $`\pm 5`$%. As already described above, from the MgO layer thickness and the observed number of RHEED oscillations we obtain the result that two RHEED oscillations correspond to the growth of a single MgO unit cell shown in Fig. 2. Again, the intuitive explanation for this observation is the fact that the unit cell of MgO consists of two identical stoichiometric layers displaced along the $`ab`$-plane by $`(𝐚+𝐛)/2`$. After the deposition of the MgO cap layer, the surface morphology was examined in-situ by Atomic Force Microscopy. The rms surface roughness averaged over an area of 1 $`\mu `$m2 was below 2 Å, i.e. even below that of the MgO substrate. This result is consistent with a dominant layer-by-layer growth mode observed for the whole bilayer.

As the last example we discuss the growth of Fe3O4 thin films on MgO substrates. Fig. 3 shows the RHEED intensity vs. time which has several interesting features. First, the modulation depth decreases continuously with increasing film thickness, if the ablation is not interrupted. Since the intensity of the maxima decreases while the intensity of the minima increases, we ascribe this to a gradual transition to the step-flow-growth mode which leaves the reflected intensity unchanged. The layer-by-layer growth mode can be re-established by annealing the sample for about 100 s in the deposition atmosphere. Second, there is a huge increase of the RHEED intensity directly after starting the PLD process. In contrast to the case of Sr2RuO4, this effect is observed reproducibly after each growth stop and not only if the deposition is started on the bare substrate. Note that the RHEED intensity vs. time curves in Fig. 3 are obtained from the $`(0,2)`$ diffraction spot. For this spot the electrons reflected from different growth planes interfere constructively (in-Bragg condition). In this case for purely coherent scattering no RHEED oscillations are expected. The fact that we do observe RHEED oscillations is caused by multiple and diffuse, incoherent scattering which results in an increasing (decreasing) intensity with increasing (decreasing) step density Korte:97 . Therefore, starting from a smooth surface the RHEED intensity first increases due to the increasing step density. That is, a $`\pi `$-phase shift of the intensity oscillation relative to those recorded for off-Bragg condition is obtained. A similar behavior has also been found for semiconductor growth Dobson:87 ; Joyce:88 ; Braun:99 . This interpretation is consistent with a third observation: after stopping the growth of Fe3O4 the intensity decreases. Since it is natural to assume that annealing leads to a smoother surface, i.e. smaller step density, it is evident that the measured intensity of the $`(0,2)`$ spot is decreasing with time. The relevance of multiple scattering processes is also manifested by the presence of Kikuchi lines. The RHEED pattern in the inset of Fig. 3 indicates that the resonant enhancement is due to both, coupling to surface bound states, and three-dimensional diffraction Braun:99 .

From the measured film thickness and the number of RHEED oscillations, for Fe3O4 we obtain four oscillations per unit cell. Considering the unit cell of Fe3O4 with the inverse spinel Fd$`\overline{3}`$m structure ($`a=b=c=0.8396`$ nm), one can identify the corresponding molecular layers each consisting of the composition Fe(A)$`{}_{}{}^{3+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$Fe(B)$`{}_{}{}^{3+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$Fe(B)$`{}_{}{}^{2+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$O$`{}_{}{}^{2}{}_{8}{}^{}`$. The letters A and B refer to the tetrahedral A-site and the octahedral B-site, where the B-site is equally occupied by Fe3+ and Fe2+ ions. These building blocks cannot be mapped onto each other by lattice translations. We note that our high quality, 30-50 nm thick magnetite films have a saturation magnetization at room temperature close to the theoretically expected value of 4.0 $`\mu _B`$/f.u., that is, the saturation magnetization is comparable to the best results reported in literature so far Kale:01 . We further note, that recently four RHEED intensity oscillations per unit cell have been observed for the layered manganites. Interestingly, there the basic building block corresponds to only half the layer thickness expected according the chemical composition $`\frac{1}{2}`$(La,Sr)3Mn2O7 Philipp:02 .

In summary, we have grown Sr2RuO4, MgO, and Fe3O4 epitaxial thin films by PLD from stoichiometric targets. Our results show that high pressure RHEED allows to monitor the epitaxial growth of the complex oxide materials on a sub-unit cell level. We have observed a molecular or block layer growth mode where the basic building blocks are determined by the chemical composition provided by the stoichiometric target material. For materials with units cells consisting of several block layers of identical stoichiometry, several RHEED oscillations per unit cell are observed.

This work was supported in part by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (project Al/560) and the BMBF (project 13N8279). We thank S. Schymon for the preparation and characterization of Sr2RuO4 thin films.


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# New Photodetection Method Using Unbalanced Sidebands for Squeezed Quantum Noise in Gravitational Wave Interferometer

## 1 Introduction

Currently several large-scale LASER interferometric gravitational wave detectors have been developed. There are many kinds of noise sources that limit a detector’s sensitivity. All of these noise sources other than the quantum noise may be reduced by technical advances in the near future. The LASER beams used in these interferometers have coherent light which satisfies the least uncertainty relation between the number of photon and the phase of the light, which represents the particle and wave nature of light, respectively. Fluctuations in the photon number produce radiation pressure noise on the test masses and fluctuations in phase produces shot noise. The shot noise can be reduced by increasing the LASER power while the radiation pressure noise is enhanced. Consequently there exists a sensitivity limit which is called the standard quantum limit (SQL). Actually there are several ways to circumvent this SQL, called squeezing, by unbalancing the coherent state. In this paper, we introduce a new detection method to realize a sensitivity better than the SQL which does not require any additional equipment for the detection scheme other than a planned control scheme of a detuned interferometer which will be discussed later in this paper.

## 2 Standard Quantum Limit

Fluctuations in the photon number $`\mathrm{\Delta }n`$ and the phase of light $`\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi `$ are related to each other by Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle. A coherent state is a quantum state in which the product of these two uncertainties is minimized as $`\mathrm{\Delta }n\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi =1/2`$. The electric field of a LASER beam can be represented roughly by the following equation.

$`E_{\mathrm{in}}`$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{N+\mathrm{\Delta }n}e^{i(\mathrm{\Omega }t+\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi )}`$ (1)
$``$ $`\left(1+{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Delta }n}{2N}}+i\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi \right)\sqrt{N}e^{i\mathrm{\Omega }t}`$
Here, $`N`$ is the average photon number and $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is the light frequency. From statistical theory, $`\mathrm{\Delta }n=\sqrt{N}`$, thus, $`\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi =1/2\sqrt{N}`$. Thus the fluctuations of the real-part and imaginary-part of eq. (1) are equal, indicating that the light is in a coherent state.

The quantum fluctuation in each observation frequency $`\omega `$ consists of a pair of sideband fields whose frequencies are $`\mathrm{\Omega }\pm \omega `$. Each sideband is excited by the influence of the annihilation and creation operators. When the sidebands are added, the fluctuation is that of photon number; when they are subtracted, it is the phase fluctuation. As two excited electric fields with different frequency are not independent it is natural to use the two-photon mode description, in which a pair of photons are considered simultaneously. There are two combinations of the photon excitation:

$`a_1`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{a_++a_{}^{}}{\sqrt{2}}}`$ (2)
$`a_2`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{a_+a_{}^{}}{\sqrt{2i}}}`$ (3)
Here, $`a`$ and $`a^{}`$ are the annihilation and creation operators, respectively, the suffix $`\pm `$ indicates frequency of upper and lower operators. Let us define $`a_1`$ in the same quadrature as the incident light and $`a_2`$ in the other quadrature. Then $`a_1`$ and $`a_2`$ mean the source of photon number and light phase fluctuations respectively, which are the quadrature coordinates for the source of optical quantum noise, called vacuum fluctuations. The vacuum fluctuations can be injected from any transmissive optic such as beam splitter or lossy mirrors. The anti-symmetric port of a Michelson interferometer for a gravitational wave detector is kept dark to optimize the signal-to-noise ratio against the shot noise; all the light but the gravitational wave signal is reflected to the symmetric port. These two ports are called the dark port and the bright port, respectively. For simplicity, we assume there is no leaking carrier light to the dark port, which means a perfect-contrast interferometer. Hence force the vacuum fluctuations coming from the direction of the LASER are reflected to the bright port; only the vacuum from the direction of the signal detection port can contribute quantum noise (Fig.1). Moreover for simplicity we assume there is no optical loss in the interferometer; the reflectivity for the end mirrors in the arm cavities are set to unity.

The output field of the dark port consists of differential components including a gravitational wave signal and fluctuations in the light which are derived from a coupling between the incident beam and the vacuum fluctuations coming from the dark port. From eq.(1) one may think that the quadrature coordinates of the output field $`b_1`$ and $`b_2`$ are balanced equally, but actually theie amplitudes differ because of a coupling from photon number fluctuations to phase noise, that is called radiation pressure noise.

According to Ref., we define $`\kappa (\omega )`$ as a coupling parameter between $`a_1`$ and the radiation pressure noise,

$`\left(\begin{array}{c}b_1\\ b_2\end{array}\right)=\left(\begin{array}{cc}1& 0\\ \kappa (\omega )& 1\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{c}a_1\\ a_2\end{array}\right)e^{2i\lambda }`$ (10)
$`\kappa (\omega )={\displaystyle \frac{(I_0/I_{\mathrm{SQL}})2\gamma ^4}{\omega ^2(\gamma ^2+\omega ^2)}}.`$ (11)
Here, the interferometric configuration is assumed to be a recombined Michelson interferometer with Fabry-Perot resonator in the arms, which is the design of TAMA and Initial-LIGO for example. The phase shift $`2\lambda `$ is gained by the signal sideband during a round trip in the arm cavity, $`\gamma `$ is the Fabry-Perot cavity pole frequency, $`I_0`$ is the light power at the beam splitter, and $`I_{\mathrm{SQL}}=mL^2\gamma ^4/4\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is the light power necessary to reach the SQL sensitivity at $`\omega =\gamma `$, when $`m`$ is the mass of the mirror and $`L`$ is the arm cavity length.

As a result, the quantum output field becomes a squeezed ellipse as shown in Fig.2. This is called ponderomotive squeezing. The ellipse is rotated by $`(1/2)\mathrm{Arccot}(\kappa /2)`$. A local oscillator or RF sidebands used to measure the amount of the signal. The signal is proportional to the amplitude of the local oscillator. After the photodetection, the squeezed vacuum combines with the local oscillator to generate the quantum noise which is also proportional to the amplitude of the local oscillator. The amplitude of the input vacuum fields $`a_1`$ and $`a_2`$ is one. The noise level is defined as the ratio between the projection of the quantum noise ellipse to the $`b_2`$ axis and the signal appearing on that axis. The signal is proportional to the amplitude of the incident classical field $`\sqrt{\kappa }`$, so the sensitivity is limited by

$`h_\mathrm{n}=h_{\mathrm{SQL}}\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{\kappa ^2+1}{2\kappa }}},`$ (12)
where $`h_{\mathrm{SQL}}\sqrt{8\mathrm{}/m\omega ^2L^2}`$ is the SQL sensitivity, which occurs when $`\kappa =1`$, or $`I_0=I_{\mathrm{SQL}}`$ and $`\omega =\gamma `$. One may think this ponderomotive squeezing effect makes it possible to overcome the SQL but the limit is defined including this squeezing effect.

## 3 Conventional Detection and Homodyne Detection

For the last few decades, several theoretical efforts to overcome the SQL have been made, called Quantum Non-Demolition (QND). Among these, homodyne detection is a way to cancel the radiation pressure noise effect. As mentioned above, conventional photodetection can only measure a signal and noise on the $`b_1`$ or $`b_2`$ axes, but homodyne detection can measure any phase allowing us to readout where the noise is less - the thin part of the ellipse.

In conventional detection we use RF sidebands for a modulation-demodulation scheme.

$`\mathrm{Signal}`$ $`:`$ $`2iD\mathrm{sin}\psi (t)`$
$`\mathrm{Sidebands}`$ $`:`$ $`4i\alpha \mathrm{cos}\omega _\mathrm{m}t\mathrm{sin}\eta `$
$`\mathrm{Vacuum}`$ $`:`$ $`b_1\mathrm{cos}(\xi (t)+\varphi _1)+b_2i\mathrm{sin}(\xi (t)+\varphi _2)`$
Here the common factor $`e^{i\mathrm{\Omega }t}`$ is omitted for simplicity (just as is shown in the phasor diagram). $`D`$ is the classical amplitude of the carrier, $`\psi (t)`$ is the phase shift by gravitational waves, $`\alpha `$ is the amplitude of the sidebands, $`\eta `$ is the phase shift caused by an asymmetry which is necessary to leak the sidebands to the dark port, $`b_1=1`$ and $`b_2=\sqrt{\kappa ^2+1}`$ are the amplitudes of the common and the differential mode operators of a squeezed vacuum, $`\xi `$ is an ellipse parameter which represents random noise, and the phase shifts $`\varphi _1`$ and $`\varphi _2`$ are given as follows.

$`\theta `$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\mathrm{Arccot}{\displaystyle \frac{\kappa }{2}}`$
$`B_1^2`$ $`=`$ $`(\kappa \mathrm{sin}\theta \mathrm{cos}\theta )^2+\mathrm{sin}\theta ^2`$
$`B_2^2`$ $`=`$ $`(\kappa \mathrm{cos}\theta \mathrm{sin}\theta )^2+\mathrm{cos}\theta ^2`$
$`\varphi _1`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{arctan}[B_2\mathrm{sin}\theta /B_1\mathrm{cos}\theta ]`$ (13)
$`\varphi _2`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{arctan}[B_1\mathrm{sin}\theta /B_2\mathrm{cos}\theta ]`$ (14)
The signal, sidebands and vacuum components shown above are summed and squared by the photodetector.

$`\left|\mathrm{Signal}+\mathrm{Sidebands}+\mathrm{Vacuum}\right|^2`$
$`=4b_2D\mathrm{sin}\psi (t)\mathrm{sin}(\xi (t)+\varphi _2)+b_1^2\mathrm{cos}^2(\xi (t)+\varphi _1)+b_2^2\mathrm{sin}^2(\xi (t)+\varphi _2)+4D^2\mathrm{sin}^2\psi (t)`$
$`8\alpha b_2\underset{¯}{\mathrm{cos}\omega _\mathrm{m}t}\mathrm{sin}(\xi (t)+\varphi _2)\mathrm{sin}\eta 16D\alpha \mathrm{sin}\psi (t)\underset{¯}{\mathrm{cos}\omega _\mathrm{m}t}\mathrm{sin}\eta +16\alpha ^2\mathrm{cos}^2\omega _\mathrm{m}t\mathrm{sin}^2\eta `$ (15)
Extracting the underlined components at a frequency of $`\omega _\mathrm{m}`$ by multiplying by $`\mathrm{cos}\omega _\mathrm{m}t`$, a process called demodulation, we obtain the signal-to-noise ratio as follows. The random noise parameter $`\xi (t)`$ is time-averaged.

$`8\alpha {\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{\kappa }}{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{h}{h_{\mathrm{SQL}}}}2\sqrt{2}\alpha \sqrt{\kappa ^2+1}`$ (16)
Here we define a signal produced by strain $`h`$ according to

$`D\mathrm{sin}\psi (t)={\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{\kappa }}{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{h}{h_{\mathrm{SQL}}}}.`$ (17)
And then the noise spectral density reads

$`S_h=h_n^2={\displaystyle \frac{h_{\mathrm{SQL}}^2}{2}}\left(\kappa +{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\kappa }}\right),`$ (18)
which indicates that we cannot overcome the SQL with conventional detection.

In homodyne detection, the local oscillators are combined with the signal light both with and without a $`\pi `$ phase shift. This can be realized by placing a beam splitter at the signal extraction port and injecting the incident light and the signal from opposite sides of the beam splitter. The squeezed vacuum injected from the output beam splitter is cancelled by this process and the local oscillator can be considered as a classical light.

$`\mathrm{LO}`$ $`:`$ $`\beta \mathrm{cos}\zeta +\beta \mathrm{i}\mathrm{sin}\zeta ,`$
where $`\beta `$ is the amplitude of the local oscillator and $`\zeta `$ is a homodyne phase, i.e. the phase of the local oscillator relative to the phase of the carrier light. Subtraction of the two interfered beams after square-law detection gives the following equation.

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left\{\left|\mathrm{Vac}+\mathrm{Sig}+\mathrm{LO}\right|^2\left|\mathrm{Vac}+\mathrm{Sig}\mathrm{LO}\right|^2\right\}`$ (19)
$`=`$ $`2\beta \mathrm{sin}\zeta \left[\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{1+(\kappa \mathrm{cot}\zeta )^2}{2}}}+2D\mathrm{sin}\psi (t)\right]`$
The noise spectral density reads

$`S_h={\displaystyle \frac{h_{\mathrm{SQL}}^2}{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{1+(\kappa \mathrm{cot}\zeta )^2}{\kappa }},`$ (20)
which has a minimum value when the homodyne phase is $`\zeta =\mathrm{arccot}\kappa `$. This result has been introduced in previous papers. We can see that the radiation pressure effect disappears for a particular frequency band (Fig.4).

## 4 Unbalanced Sideband Detection

Now the author will show that the same performance achieved by homodyne detection can also be achieved by using only a single sideband - without any additional optics such as the output beam splitter.

$`\mathrm{Single}\mathrm{Sideband}:2i\alpha e^{i\omega _\mathrm{m}t}\mathrm{sin}\eta `$
Eq.(15) will have a different solution as follows.

$`\left|\mathrm{Signal}+\mathrm{Single}\mathrm{Sideband}+\mathrm{Vacuum}\right|^2`$
$`=4b_2D\mathrm{sin}\psi (t)\mathrm{sin}(\xi (t)+\varphi _2)+4D^2\mathrm{sin}^2\psi (t)4\alpha b_2\underset{¯}{\mathrm{cos}\omega _\mathrm{m}t}\mathrm{sin}(\xi (t)+\varphi _2)\mathrm{sin}\eta `$
$`8\alpha D\mathrm{sin}\psi (t)\underset{¯}{\mathrm{cos}\omega _\mathrm{m}t}\mathrm{sin}\eta +4\alpha b_1\underset{¯}{\mathrm{sin}\omega _\mathrm{m}t}\mathrm{cos}(\xi (t)+\varphi _1)\mathrm{sin}\eta `$
$`+b_1^2\mathrm{cos}^2(\xi (t)+\varphi _1)+b_2^2\mathrm{sin}^2(\xi (t)+\varphi _2)+4\alpha ^2\mathrm{sin}^2\eta `$ (21)
After the same demodulation process as the conventional detection scheme, i.e. by multiplying by $`\mathrm{sin}(\omega _\mathrm{m}\zeta ^{})`$, the output is

$`2\alpha \mathrm{sin}\zeta ^{}\left[\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{1+(\kappa \mathrm{cot}\zeta ^{})^2}{2}}}+2D\mathrm{sin}\psi (t)\right]`$ (22)
which is the same equation as eq.(19) except $`\alpha \beta `$ and $`\zeta \zeta ^{}`$. Notice that $`\zeta ^{}`$ is not a homodyne phase but a heterodyne demodulation phase, the phase shift between the modulation sidebands and the RF demodulation signal. Conventionally the demodulation phase is set to be $`\pi /2`$ to obtain a differential signal, but considering the ponderomotive squeezing effect the phase should be set to be $`\zeta ^{}=\mathrm{arccot}\kappa `$ to minimize the quantum noise at the desired observing frequency band.

One may wonder why this single sideband detection can beat the SQL even though it is impossible with conventional dual sidebands detection. Figure 3 explains the reason clearly. With conventional detection using dual sidebands, even if one wants to optimize the demodulation phase for one sideband, the other sideband phase is anti-optimal and generates increased noise. As a result the total noise is equivalent to the case when the sidebands stay on the differential axis.

This QND detection can also be realized with dual sidebands if there is an unbalance between the amplitude of the upper and lower sidebands. It can be derived that the noise spectrum in that case is the same as Eq.(20) when the demodulation phase meets the following condition.

$`\zeta ^{}=\mathrm{arccot}{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha }{\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha }}\kappa `$ (23)
Here, $`\alpha `$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha `$ are the average and the difference of the amplitude of the upper and the lower sidebands. When the unbalance factor $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha `$ is small, the output (22) is small, although the signal-to-noise ratio is unaffected.

There are several ways to produce unbalance of the sidebands, one of which is to make only one sideband resonate in a cavity placed at the dark port. Advanced-LIGO will employ what is called a detuned resonant-sideband-extraction (RSE) system, realized with a signal recycling cavity detuned from the resonant condition. To control the detuned cavity, it is planned to make only the upper or lower sideband resonant, hence, the carrier is detuned from resonance. The transmittance of the RSE cavity for the resonant sideband is larger than the non-resonant sideband, producing the necessary sideband unbalance.

One outstanding advantage for this detection technique is the possibility of broadband QND detection by combining several outputs each optimized for a different frequency. On the phasor diagram the single sideband rotates by its modulation frequency; 12 megahertz in Initial-LIGO, for example. Here the demodulation is a kind of the stroboscopic measurement, clipping the moving signal-to-noise ratio at some periodic phase and producing a spectrum for that phase. There is no quantum demolition if the measured photocurrent is split to several demodulator circuits, each of which has a different demodulation phase. There is, on the other hand, quantum demolition if the output beam is split to several photodetectors, because another vacuum fluctuation would be injected from the optical components used for the division. In other words, if several optical local oscillators with different homodyne phases were to be used to try to beat the SQL at several frequency bands, the decrease in optical power would increase the shot noise level, but if different-phase electrical local oscillators are used there is no corresponding increase in shot noise.

Ideally, by measuring all of the signal with different demodulation phases, one can obtain just the same quantum noise spectrum as is shown for the dotted line in Fig.4. This indicates there is no radiation pressure noise - only shot noise. We can call this method the broadband QND detection.

## 5 Conclusions and Discussions

In this paper, the author shows that the single sideband detection, or more generally unbalanced sideband detection, can realize the same improvement in the quantum noise level achieved by homodyne detection. Moreover, broadband QND can be realized by this new photodetection method using multi-channel demodulation. Applying the multi-channel technique to a conventional non-detuned interferometer, we can remove the radiation pressure noise completely.

It should be mentioned that there is an extra shot noise contribution which can decrease signal-to-noise ratio by nearly 20%. It is neglected in this paper for simplicity. In the conventional RF scheme and the unbalanced sideband detection, the vacuum fluctuations at a frequency of $`\mathrm{\Omega }\pm 2\omega _\mathrm{m}`$ combine with the RF sidebands and generate this extra shot noise, which is called nonstationary shot noise. For the conventional interferometric configuration, it is reported in these papers that the nonstationary shot noise can be reduced by using a square-wave form for modulation and/or demodulation instead of a sinusoidal wave. Further study is needed for the detuned interferometer.

The author has mentioned that one advantage of this method is that the unbalanced sideband condition is naturally realized using only the planned control scheme for a detuned RSE configuration. Indeed, the quantum noise spectrum for the detuned RSE will be quite different from a conventional interferometer’s noise spectrum. For the detuned RSE, ponderomotively squeezed vacuum is reflected by the RSE mirror and returns to the dark port with some phase shift, so it can be a sort of input squeezing conditions; this squeezing make it possible to circumvent the SQL at some frequencies, and consequently the quantum noise curve can show two dips. This phenomenon is called the optical spring. Both dips can be moved by changing the homodyne phase.

A quantum noise spectrum for detuned RSE with multi-channel single sideband detection is shown in Fig.5. Here we use three signal ports with different demodulation phases for example. One can see the noise spectrum is improved, expanding from a narrow band to a broadband. Further broadband detection can be realized by sweeping the detuning phase, a technique that will be developed in near future.

A practical multi-phase detection method for a high-power detuned RSE should be studied more. The optical spring can generate instabilities between the arm cavities and the transmissive RSE mirror. Such instabilities can be cured, for example in the case with a simple homodyne detection, by damping the optical spring with a feed-back control system. The condition will be more complicated with a multi-phase detection scheme or with sweeping, so further studies are needed.

## 6 acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank Professor S.Kawamura, Professor N.Mio, and O.Miyakawa for giving the author a chance to think about this method. And also the author wishes to thank members of Advanced-Interferometer-Configuration Committee from LSC (LIGO Science Collaboration) for many helpful comments, especially P.Beyersdorf who helped edit this paper. This research is supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Creative Basic Research of the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture.


text:
# Absence of singular superconducting fluctuation corrections to thermal conductivity

## Abstract

We evaluate the superconducting fluctuation corrections to thermal conductivity in the normal state which diverge as $`T`$ approaches $`T_c`$. We find zero total contribution for one, two and three-dimensional superconductors for arbitrary impurity concentration. The method used is diagrammatic many-body theory, and all contributions – Aslamazov-Larkin (AL), Maki-Thompson (MT), and density-of-states (DOS) – are considered. The AL contribution is convergent, whilst the divergences of the DOS and MT diagrams exactly cancel.

The discovery of the high-$`T_c`$ superconductors has led to a renewed interest in superconducting fluctuation corrections to normal state transport properties. Whilst much of the work has focused on the electrical resistivity, $`\rho `$, several experiments have reported fluctuation corrections to the thermal conductivity, $`\kappa `$. Since there is some dispute between theorists as to the predicted magnitude of the effect, we have performed a detailed microscopic calculation valid for all impurity concentrations. We find no divergent fluctuation contribution, and conclude that the experimental features seen near $`T_c`$ must have some other physical origin.

Let us try to understand the reason for the lack of singular fluctuation contributions to thermal conductivity. There are several processes involved, and we will try to develop a physical picture for each. The Aslamazov-Larkin (AL) process involves the transfer of heat by fluctuation Cooper pairs. The corresponding term for the electrical conductivity has the strong divergence

$$\sigma _{AL}(TT_c)^{d/22}.$$
(1)
The size of the contribution to thermal conductivity can be estimated from Eq. (1) using the Wiedemann-Franz law, which has the general form

$$\kappa T\left(\frac{k_BT_0}{Q_0}\right)^2\sigma ,$$
(2)
where $`k_BT_0`$ is the amount of heat, and $`Q_0`$ the electric charge, carried by the excitations in a given system. For fluctuation Cooper pairs, $`T_0TT_c`$, and $`Q_0=2e`$ so that

$$\kappa _{AL}T\left(\frac{k_B(TT_c)}{2e}\right)^2\sigma _{AL}(TT_c)^{d/2},$$
(3)
which is clearly non-singular as $`TT_c`$. The density-of-states (DOS) correction arises from the fact that when electrons form fluctuation Cooper pairs, they cannot simultaneously act as normal electrons; there is a corresponding decrease in the normal state density-of-states and hence normal state thermal conductivity

$$\kappa _{DOS}\frac{n_{cp}k_B^2T^2\tau }{m}(TT_c)^{d/21},$$
(4)
where $`n_{cp}(TT_c)^{d/21}`$ is the number density of fluctuating Cooper pairs. This term is singular for $`d2`$, but is exactly cancelled by Maki-Thompson (MT) terms. The latter terms are due to new heat transport channels opened up by Andreev scattering processes. An electron can Andreev-scatter into a hole, and since electrons and holes carry the same heat current, this leads to a net increase in thermal conductivity. The amplitude for the Andreev scattering is exactly the same as for an electron to scatter into a fluctuation Cooper pair, so the MT and DOS terms have the same magnitude but opposite sign, and hence cancel. These MT processes lead to a further suppression to electrical conductivity since holes carry opposite electric charge to electrons i.e. the MT and DOS contributions cancel for thermal conductivity and reinforce for electrical conductivity.

Before we proceed to the details of our calculation, we present a short history of superconducting fluctuation corrections to thermal conductivity. They were first predicted in 1970 by Abrahams et al in the diffusive regime. These authors concluded that the Aslamazov-Larkin (AL) terms were convergent, but that density-of-states (DOS) terms led to divergent contributions in two and one dimensions, of the form $`\mathrm{ln}(TT_c)`$ and $`(TT_c)^{1/2}`$ respectively. They appear to have missed the cancellation between DOS and MT contributions. Shortly afterwards fluctuation effects with the predicted power-law behaviour were observed in one-dimensional Pb-In wires. After this intial work there was apparently no theoretical or experimental activity in this area for nearly two decades. Indeed, in Skocpol and Tinkham’s 1975 review, thermal conductivity is described as one of those quantities which “have not yet benefited from sustained interaction between theory and experiment, perhaps because such effects are small, and hard to interpret.” In 1990 Varlamov and collaborators predicted AL contributions with the same strong divergence found in the electrical conductivity, $`(TT_c)^{d/22}`$; this erroneous result appears to be due to an incorrect treatment of the heat-current operator. The same authors also discussed the relative magnitudes of DOS, MT and AL contributions in layered superconductors, and argued that the DOS and MT terms dominate in $`\kappa _c`$ whilst AL terms dominate in $`\kappa _{ab}`$. The predicted fluctuation effects have since been seen experimentally in an YBa2Cu3O7-δ single crystal, and Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 and DyBa2Cu3O7-δ polycrystals. Excellent quantitative agreement was found between theory and experiment; indeed, even the predicted two- to three-dimensional crossover is seen at roughly the predicted temperature. Fluctuation effects have also been seen in (Nd/Y)BCO intergrowth crystals, although these have not been compared in detail with theory. However there are problems with this apparent agreement between theory and experiment. The AL contributions have been re-analysed in two works using phenomenological hydrodynamic and Gaussian fluctuation approaches, and argued to be convergent. Very recently Savona et al have agreed that there is no divergent AL correction, but argue that there are still divergent DOS and MT terms; we believe that these authors have missed the cancellation between the DOS and MT terms.

We now proceed to the details of our microscopic calculation. The thermal conductivity is obtained from the imaginary time heat response kernel, $`Q_{hh}(i\mathrm{\Omega }_n)`$, by analytic continuation from positive Bose Matsubara frequencies, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_n=2\pi Tn`$,

$$\kappa =\underset{\mathrm{\Omega }0}{lim}\frac{Q_{hh}(i\mathrm{\Omega }_n\mathrm{\Omega }+i0)}{i\mathrm{\Omega }T}.$$
(5)
The diagrammatic contributions to the heat response kernel of lowest order in perturbation theory are detailed in Fig. 1. The solid lines are disordered electron Green functions

$$G(k,i\epsilon _l)=\frac{1}{i\epsilon _l\xi _k+\frac{i}{2\tau }\text{sgn}(\epsilon _l)}$$
(6)
where $`\epsilon _l=2\pi T(l+1/2)`$ is a Fermi Matsubara frequency, $`\xi _k=k^2/2m\mu `$ is the electronic excitation spectrum, and $`\tau `$ is the elastic scattering time. The black dots represent heat-current vertices, which are given by

$$𝐣_h(𝐤,\epsilon _l,\epsilon _l+\mathrm{\Omega }_n)=\frac{𝐤}{2m}i(2\epsilon _l+\mathrm{\Omega }_n).$$
(7)
The shaded regions are impurity vertex renormalization which, at zero momentum, take the form

$$C(q=0,\epsilon _1,\epsilon _2)=\mathrm{\Theta }(+\epsilon _1\epsilon _2)+\frac{\mathrm{\Theta }(\epsilon _1\epsilon _2)}{(|\epsilon _1|+|\epsilon _2|)\tau },$$
(8)
whilst the dashed lines are single impurity renormalizations. The wavy lines are superconducting fluctuation propagators, $`L(q,i\omega _m)`$, which for small $`q`$ are given by

$$L(q,i\omega _m)^1=N(0)\left[\mathrm{ln}\left(\frac{T}{T_c}\right)+\psi \left(\frac{1}{2}+\frac{|\omega _m|}{4\pi T}\right)\psi \left(\frac{1}{2}\right)+A(\omega _m)Dq^2\right]$$
(9)
where $`N(0)`$ is the electronic density-of-states per spin at the Fermi surface, $`\omega _m=2\pi Tm`$ is a Bose Matsubara frequency, $`\psi (x)`$ is the digamma function, $`D=v_F^2\tau /d`$ is the diffusion constant, and $`A(\omega _m)`$ is given by

$$A(\omega _m)=\frac{1}{4\pi T}\psi ^{}\left(\frac{1}{2}+\frac{|\omega _m|}{4\pi T}\right)\tau \left[\psi \left(\frac{1}{2}+\frac{|\omega _m|}{4\pi T}+\frac{1}{4\pi T\tau }\right)\psi \left(\frac{1}{2}+\frac{|\omega _m|}{4\pi T}\right)\right].$$
(10)
The zero-frequency fluctuation propagator, $`L(q,0)`$, has a $`1/q^2`$ divergence as $`T`$ approaches $`T_c`$,

$$L(q,0)^1=N(0)\left[\frac{TT_c}{T_c}+A(0)Dq^2\right].$$
(11)
It is this feature which leads to divergent contributions to various physical properties as $`T`$ approaches $`T_c`$.

Diagrams A and B of Fig. 1, in which a fluctuation propagator affects only one electron line yields the DOS contributions; diagram C, in which a fluctuation propagator leads to interference between electron lines, yields the MT contribution; diagram D, which possesses two fluctuation propagators, yields the AL contributions. Note that since the object of this paper is merely to show that there are no divergent contributions to $`\kappa `$ at $`T=T_c`$, we have omitted all diagrams that cannot have such divergences. In particular we have ignored all DOS and MT diagrams that have an impurity line or ladder between the two heat current vertices. Such diagrams possess an extra factor of $`q^2`$ which removes the low-momentum singularity of the fluctuation propagator, $`L(q,0)`$. We need also consider only the lowest power of $`q`$ in any diagram since this will have the most divergent behavior – we therefore set $`q=0`$ in all terms except the fluctuation propagators. Finally since all DOS and MT diagrams have only one superconducting fluctuation propagator we can take the static limit and consider only terms $`L(q,i\omega _m)`$ with zero Cooper pair frequency, $`\omega _m=0`$. The AL term has two fluctuation propagators, and here we have to be more careful and keep all $`\omega _m`$ terms as there is an anomalous region of frequencies where one propagator can have positive frequency, and the other negative frequency.

The regular parts of the DOS and MT diagrams, which come from diagrams A and C, give the total contribution

$$Q_{hh}^{reg}(i\mathrm{\Omega }_n)=\pi N(0)DT^2\underset{\epsilon _l>0}{}\frac{(2\epsilon _l+\mathrm{\Omega }_n)^2}{[1+(2\epsilon _l+\mathrm{\Omega }_n)\tau ]}\left\{\frac{1}{\epsilon _l^2}+\frac{1}{(\epsilon _l+\mathrm{\Omega }_n)^2}\frac{2}{\epsilon _l(\epsilon _l+\mathrm{\Omega }_n)}\right\}\underset{q}{}L(q,0)$$
(12)
The sum of three terms in the curly brackets is easily seen to be proportional to $`\mathrm{\Omega }_n^2`$ so upon analytical continuation, division by $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$, and setting $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ to zero, we get zero contribution. The two DOS and one MT term have exactly cancelled each other. Note that the same terms in the electromagnetic response function reinforce rather than cancel each other because the electric current vertex has the opposite electron-hole parity to the heat current vertex (ie. holes carry opposite charge but the same excitation energy to electrons).

The anomalous parts of the DOS and MT diagrams give total contribution

$`Q_{hh}^{anom}(i\mathrm{\Omega }_n)={\displaystyle \frac{\pi N(0)D}{(1+\mathrm{\Omega }_n\tau )^2}}T^2{\displaystyle \underset{0<\epsilon _l<\mathrm{\Omega }_n}{}}(2\epsilon _l\mathrm{\Omega }_n)^2\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{1+2\epsilon _l\tau }{\epsilon _l^2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{1+\mathrm{\Omega }_n\tau }{\epsilon _l^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\epsilon _l^2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{1+\mathrm{\Omega }_n\tau }{\epsilon _l(\mathrm{\Omega }_n\epsilon _l)}}\right\}{\displaystyle \underset{q}{}}L(q,0)`$ (13)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{N(0)DT}{(1+\mathrm{\Omega }_n\tau )^2}}\left\{2\mathrm{\Omega }_n^2\tau \mathrm{\Omega }_n\left[\psi \left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{|\mathrm{\Omega }_n|}{2\pi T}}\right)\psi \left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\right)\right]+{\displaystyle \frac{(1+\mathrm{\Omega }_n\tau )\mathrm{\Omega }_n^2}{4\pi T}}\left[\psi ^{}\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\right)\psi ^{}\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{|\mathrm{\Omega }_n|}{2\pi T}}\right)\right]\right\}{\displaystyle \underset{q}{}}L(q,0),`$ (14)
where we have explicitly carried out the $`\epsilon _l`$ sum. Upon analytically continuing $`i\mathrm{\Omega }_n\mathrm{\Omega }`$, dividing by $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$, and taking the limit $`\mathrm{\Omega }0`$, the above expression gives zero result. The net result is thus that the anomalous part of the DOS + MT diagrams do not yield a divergent contribution.

Finally it only remains to show that there is no divergent contribution from the AL terms. Paradoxically, although this result does not appear to be in dispute, it is the trickiest to prove. The method used is simple power-counting, applied to the analytical continuation of the complete Matsubara sum. We need the complete sum because there is an anomalous region of Bose frequency, $`\omega _m`$, for which the two superconducting propagators $`L(q,i\omega _m+i\mathrm{\Omega }_n)`$ and $`L(q,i\omega _m)`$ have opposite signs of Matsubara frequency. We cannot therefore simply take the static approximation where one or other superconducting propagator has zero Matsubara frequency. Instead we must evaluate the two triangle blocks for general $`\omega _m`$, and distinguish between the three summation regions: (i) $`\omega _m+\mathrm{\Omega }_n>0`$, $`\omega _m>0`$; (ii) $`\omega _m+\mathrm{\Omega }_n>0`$, $`\omega _m<0`$; (iii) $`\omega _m+\mathrm{\Omega }_n<0`$, $`\omega _m<0`$. Note that the two summation terms, $`\omega _m=0`$ and $`\omega _m=\mathrm{\Omega }_n`$, which possess one divergent fluctuation propagator, $`L(q,0)`$, are both zero after analytic continuation $`i\mathrm{\Omega }_n\mathrm{\Omega }+i0`$, division by $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$, and taking the limit $`\mathrm{\Omega }0`$. It follows that when we analytically continue using the contours shown in Fig. 2., we need not worry about contours passing through the poles.

The contributions from regions (i) and (iii) give identical results, and their sum is

$$Q_1^{AL}(i\mathrm{\Omega }_n)=T\underset{\omega _m>0}{}\underset{q}{}\frac{q^2}{d}B_1(i\omega _m,i\mathrm{\Omega }_n)^2L(q,i\omega _m)L(q,i\omega _m+i\mathrm{\Omega }_n),$$
(15)
where the $`B_1(i\omega _m,i\mathrm{\Omega }_n)`$ are from the triangle blocks. Upon replacing summation over $`\omega _m`$ by integration over $`\omega `$, and analytically continuing $`i\mathrm{\Omega }_n\mathrm{\Omega }+i0`$, we get

$$Q_1^{AL}(\mathrm{\Omega })=\frac{1}{4\pi i}_{\mathrm{}}^+\mathrm{}𝑑\omega \mathrm{coth}(\omega /2T)\underset{q}{}\frac{q^2}{d}B_1(\omega ,\mathrm{\Omega })^2L(q,\omega )L(q,\omega +\mathrm{\Omega })$$
(16)
For small $`\omega `$, $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$, we can show that $`B_1(\omega ,\mathrm{\Omega })\alpha \omega +\beta \mathrm{\Omega }`$, where $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$ are constants, so that for power-counting purposes Eq. (16) at $`T=T_c`$ becomes (ignoring all irrelevant coefficients)

$$Q_1^{AL}(\mathrm{\Omega })_{\mathrm{}}^+\mathrm{}𝑑\omega \mathrm{coth}(\omega /2T)d^dqq^2\frac{(\omega +\mathrm{\Omega })^2}{(q^2i\omega )(q^2i\omega i\mathrm{\Omega })}$$
(17)
The $`O(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ piece can be found by expanding either the numerator or denominator. In both cases the behavior as $`\omega q^20`$ is $`O(q^d)`$, and hence there is no infrared singularity for $`d>0`$.

The contribution from region (ii) has the form

$$Q_2^{AL}(i\mathrm{\Omega }_n)=T\underset{0>\omega _m>\mathrm{\Omega }_n}{}\underset{q}{}\frac{q^2}{d}B_2(i\omega _m,i\mathrm{\Omega }_n)^2L(q,i\omega _m)L(q,i\omega _m+i\mathrm{\Omega }_n)$$
(18)
which, upon replacing summation over $`\omega _m`$ by integration over $`\omega `$, gives

$$Q_2^{AL}(i\mathrm{\Omega }_n)=\frac{1}{4\pi i}\left[_{\mathrm{}}^+\mathrm{}𝑑\omega _{\mathrm{}i\mathrm{\Omega }_n}^{+\mathrm{}i\mathrm{\Omega }_n}𝑑\omega \right]\mathrm{coth}(\omega /2T)\underset{q}{}\frac{q^2}{d}B_2(\omega ,i\mathrm{\Omega }_n)^2L^A(q,\omega )L^R(q,\omega +i\mathrm{\Omega }_n).$$
(19)
Shifting variable in the second integral, $`\omega \omega i\mathrm{\Omega }_n`$, analytically continuing $`i\mathrm{\Omega }_n\mathrm{\Omega }+i0`$, shifting the variable back, $`\omega \omega +\mathrm{\Omega }`$, dividing throughout by $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$, and letting $`\mathrm{\Omega }0`$ gives

$$\underset{\mathrm{\Omega }0}{lim}\frac{Q_2^{AL}(\mathrm{\Omega }+i0)}{\mathrm{\Omega }}=\frac{1}{8\pi iT}_{\mathrm{}}^+\mathrm{}\frac{d\omega }{\mathrm{sinh}^2(\omega /2T)}B_2(\omega ,0)^2\underset{q}{}\frac{q^2}{d}L^A(q,\omega )L^R(q,\omega )$$
(20)
For small $`\omega `$ we can show that $`B_2(\omega ,0)=\gamma \omega `$, where $`\gamma `$ is a constant, so that for power-counting purposes Eq. (20) at $`T=T_c`$ becomes

$$\underset{\mathrm{\Omega }0}{lim}\frac{Q_2^{AL}(\mathrm{\Omega }+i0)}{\mathrm{\Omega }}_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}\frac{d\omega }{\mathrm{sinh}(\omega /2T)^2}d^dqq^2\frac{\omega ^2}{(q^2i\omega )(q^2+i\omega )}$$
(21)
The behavior as $`\omega q^20`$ is $`O(q^d)`$, and hence there is no infrared singularity for $`d>0`$. We have therefore shown that there is no singular contribution from the AL diagrams.

In conclusion we have shown that there are no superconducting fluctuation corrections to the thermal conductivity above the transition temperature which are singular as $`T`$ approaches $`T_c`$. The experimental features seen near $`T_c`$ must therefore have some other physical explanation, such as reduced phonon scattering from normal state electrons. We hope that there will be continued experimental interest in thermal conductivity near $`T_c`$ in one- and two-dimensional superconductors, of both the high-$`T_c`$ and low $`T_c`$ variety. In future work we also intend to evaluate the non-singular fluctuation contributions to the thermal conductivity to see if this can explain any of the experimental features (although, given their power-law behavior, this seems unlikely).

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We thank I.V. Lerner, G. Savona, A.A. Varlamov and I.V. Yurkevich for helpful discussions, and S. Vishveshwara for bringing our attention to the question of fluctuation contributions to thermal conductivity. We acknowledge support from the UK EPSRC.


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# Structure in the Epsilon Eridani dusty disk caused by mean motion resonances with a 0.3 eccentricity planet at periastron

## 1 Introduction

The Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) measured far infrared fluxes from the vicinity of main sequence stars (Aumann et al., 1984), including the nearby systems Vega and Formalhaut which are of moderate age, $`10^8`$ years, at the end of the era when rocky planets are expected to form. Recently, submillimeter wavelength images of stars with infrared excesses have revealed structure in some of these disks. Formalhaut has a dust ring with a central cavity (Holland et al., 1998), Vega, $`\beta `$ Pictorus and HR 4796A have secondary dust emission peaks and central cavities (Wilner et al., 2002; Holland et al., 1998; Jayawardhana et al., 1998; Koerner et al, 1998), HR 4796A has a ring evident in scattered light from the central star (Schneider et al., 1999), and $`ϵ`$ Eridani has a 60 AU dusty ring with peculiar 4 peaks of emission (Greaves et al., 1998). HR 4796A and $`\beta `$ Pictorus are younger, at ages of only $`10^7`$ years, whereas $`ϵ`$ Eridani (HR 1084) is a nearby 0.5-1 Gyr old K2V ($`0.8M_{}`$) star (Soderblom & Dappen, 1989; Song et al., 2000).

Because of the short lifetime of the dust particles in these disks, and the scarcity of gas, the dust must continually be replenished from collisions of larger orbiting bodies, possibly analogous to Kuiper belt objects. Hence the disks in the older systems are commonly called debris disks. Dust particles in our solar system spiral toward the sun due to radiation drag forces, known as Poynting-Robertson (P-R) drag and interactions with the solar wind (Burns et al., 1979). Gravitational perturbations from planets can scatter the particles or capture them into orbital resonances with planets (e.g., Dermott et al. 1994). Since the lifetime of captured particles can greatly exceed the lifetime of particles which are not captured, resonant trapping can sculpt the dusty disk.

Structure predicted in the dust distribution in the Kuiper Belt is primarily a result of resonance trapping (Liou & Zook, 1999; Moro-Martin & Malhotra, 2002). Wilner et al. (2002) suggested that the two peaks seen at 1.3mm in the Vega disk could be explained by the capture of dust particles into the 2:1 exterior mean-motion resonance with a high eccentricity three Jupiter mass giant planet at a semi-major axis of 40AU. Ozernoy et al. (2000) proposed that the morphology of the submillimeter images of the $`ϵ`$ Eridani system could be caused by dust particles trapped in high libration orbits associated with the 3:2 mean motion resonances with a $`0.2`$ Jupiter mass planet in a circular orbit. While Ozernoy et al. (2000) considered the morphology caused by dust particles carefully placed in individual resonances, here we initially distribute dust particles over a range of semi-major axes and eccentricities and search for stable dust configurations which can account for the four peaks observed in the submillimeter images of the $`ϵ`$ Eridani system.

## 2 Numerical Integration

We numerically integrate the orbits of dust particles using a conventional Burlisch-Stoer numerical scheme. The forces on the particles are gravity from a central star and one planet and P-R drag from the central star. The motion of the dust particles was restricted to the plane containing the planet and star. The ratio of the force from radiation to that from the gravity of the central star is parametrized with the dimensionless parameter, $`\beta `$, which depends primarily on particle size (Burns et al., 1979). Length scales are given in units of the perturbing planet semi-major axis, $`a_p`$, and timescales in units such that $`GM_{}=1`$ where $`M_{}`$ is the mass of the central star. The ratio of the planet mass to the stellar mass is denoted as $`\mu `$.

Dust particles see a reduced radial force from the central star because radiation pressure opposes gravity. This causes the location of the mean motion resonances with the planet to shift radially by a factor of $`(1\beta )^{1/3}`$. However the magnitude of the P-R drag force caused by relativistic effects depends on the ratio of the particle velocity to the speed of light, $`c`$, times $`\beta `$. Because of our choice of units, the speed of light, $`c`$, is in units of $`\sqrt{GM_{}/a_p}`$. We have adopted $`c/\sqrt{GM_{}/a_p}=5\times 10^4`$ which corresponds to having a stellar mass of $`1M_{}`$ and a planet radius of 25AU. Because of the weak dependence of $`c`$ on stellar mass and planetary semi-major axis, our simulations should scale to outer solar systems, such as the $`ϵ`$ Eridani disk, with the caveat that the particle drift rates should be a factor of a few times lower.

With the exception of Wilner et al. (2002), most simulations of dust dynamics in planetary systems have been carried out for low eccentricity systems. As Wilner et al. (2002) found, high eccentricity planets can cause strong azimuthal density contrasts in the distributions of objects trapped in outer resonances such as the 2:1 and 3:1 mean motion resonances. Typically we find that the azimuthal contrasts are lower in the outer resonances than those closer to the planet. Previous simulations have predicted that resonances close to the planet such as the 4:3, 3:2, 5:3, and 7:4 resonances efficiently trap and hold dust particles in Kuiper belt (Liou & Zook, 1999; Moro-Martin & Malhotra, 2002). We restrict our simulations to the region containing these resonances.

We began the simulations with 300 dust particles distributed randomly in semi-major axis between 1.1 and 1.5 times the planet’s semi-major axis. Longitudes of periastron and mean longitudes were chosen randomly. Dust particle eccentricities were chosen to lie between zero and 0.4. We ran each simulation for $`2\times 10^4`$ planetary orbit periods. The positions of all the particles were recorded every planetary year, consequently the phase of the planet was the same during each output of the integration. We binned the particle positions counting the positions the particles at each output of the simulation. The resulting spatial distributions and semi-major axis distributions are shown in Figure 1 for the planet at periastron and at apastron. All dust particles contributed to the time integrated dust distributions, however, particles which were quickly ejected from the system, or quickly impacted the star or planet, contributed less to the integrated dust distributions. Particles which remained trapped in resonances for long periods of time contributed substantially to the dust distribution.

In Figure 1d we show the particle distribution restricted to semi-major axis between 1.2-1.3, containing the 3:2 resonance, and between 1.3-1.37, containing the 5:3 resonance, for the simulations shown in Figure 1a,b when the planet is at periastron and at apastron. Only one family of resonant orbits dominates for both resonances and the phase of the density peaks with respect to the planet depends on the planet’s orbital phase. The distribution of particles in the 3:2 resonance exhibits a three-fold symmetry and that of the 5:3 exhibits a five-fold symmetry. When the planet is at periastron, the sum of the particle distributions in the 3:2 and 5:3 resonances exhibits four peaks similar to those observed in the $`ϵ`$ Eridani system.

To simulate the effect of the decreasing radiation field the dust distribution was weighted by $`r^2`$ where $`r`$ is its radial distance from the star. The resulting predicted intensity image for a planet at periastron, and smoothed to the approximate resolution of the submillimeter observations is shown in Figure 2 with the submillimeter image by Greaves et al. (1998) for comparison. The dusty disk is tilted assuming a disk inclination of $`40^{}`$ (where $`0^{}`$ corresponds to face on). This is somewhat higher than the $`25^{}`$ estimated by Greaves et al. (1998) from the ring but consistent with the $`30^{}\pm 15^{}`$ estimated from optical line data Saar & Osten (1997).

The morphology of the dust simulation shown in Figure 2 exhibits two dominant peaks at mean longitudes of approximately $`\pm 3\pi /5`$ from the planet which correspond fairly well to the two dominant peaks south east and west of the star observed in the submillimeter map. Near the planet, a weaker arc is displayed in the simulation, which corresponds to the weaker arc of emission observed to the north of the star in the submillimeter map. However, the dust emission predicted opposite to the planet is more distant from the star than that observed south of the star in the submillimeter image.

In Figure 1d we show particle distributions for restricted ranges of semi-major axes. When the planet is at periastron, density enhancements caused by the 3:2 resonance add to those from the 5:3 causing the two dominant peaks seen in Figure 1a. When the planet is at apastron, the concentrations caused by the 3:2 resonance are out of phase with those in the 5:3. Some substructure is also caused by the 7:4 resonance in Figures 1a,b.

In Figures 1 and 2 we have given axes in units of the planets semi-major axis. The radius of the ring was estimated to be approximately 60 AU which would correspond to a planet semi-major axis of about 2/3 this or 40 AU. Assuming a stellar mass of 0.8 $`M_{}`$, the planet orbital period is 280 years. The total time of our simulations ($`2\times 10^4`$ times the planet period) corresponds to $`6\times 10^7`$ years.

Dust particles can be trapped in a $`k+q:k`$ exterior principle mean-motion resonance with resonant arguments of the form

$$\varphi =(k+q)\lambda k\lambda _pp\varpi +(pq)\varpi _p$$
(1)
where $`p`$ is an integer between 0 and $`q`$, $`\lambda `$ and $`\lambda _p`$ are the mean longitudes of the particle and planet respectively, and $`\varpi `$ and $`\varpi _p`$ are the longitudes of periastron. We consider the particle to be trapped in the resonance when $`\varphi `$ librates about a particular fixed value. Take the planet’s longitude of periastron as a reference angle ($`\varpi _p=0`$). In resonance the resonance angle $`\varphi n\pi `$ where $`n`$ is odd if $`q`$ is even and $`n`$ is even otherwise.

For the mean longitude of a dust particle very close to the planet to be strongly locked to that of the planet, the resonance responsible is likely to be the $`p=0`$ one. In this case

$$\lambda =\frac{n\pi +k\lambda _p}{k+q}$$
(2)
For the 3:2 resonance and when the planet is at periastron ($`\lambda _p=\omega _p=0`$), we find dust particles near $`\lambda =0,\pm 2\pi /3`$. When the planet is at apastron ($`\lambda _p=\pi `$), $`\lambda `$ is the same. This only looks out of phase in Figure 1d because we have rotated the images so that the longitude of the planet is fixed. When the resonant argument $`\varphi `$ is fixed, we will only find particles with these longitudes, causing the concentrations we see in Figure 1. For the 5:3 resonance, when the planet is at periastron, $`\lambda =\pi ,\pm 3\pi /5,\pm \pi /5`$, and when the planet is at apastron, $`\lambda =0,\pm 2\pi /5,\pm 4\pi /5`$. This five-fold symmetry is also consistent with the concentrations seen in Figure 1d.

In our simulations we also found particles populating resonances with other values of $`p`$, however these tended to have shorter lifetimes and so contributed less to the final particle distributions. When $`p0`$, higher particle densities arise at angles when the particles reach apastron or periastron (see discussion in Wilner et al. 2002). For example, $`p=1`$ is favored for the 3:2 resonance when the planet is at low eccentricity causing two peaks in the particle distribution rather than three, which is what is seen in the simulations of (Liou & Zook, 1999).

## 3 Summary and Discussion

We have found that the morphology of dusty material trapped in exterior resonances with a planet can be strongly dependent upon the eccentricity and orbital phase of the planet. The morphology of the $`ϵ`$ Eridani dust ring seems to be reproduced by dust particles captured into the 5:3 and 3:2 exterior resonances with a moderate eccentricity, $`e_p0.3`$, planet near periastron. When the planet was more massive ($`\mu >5\times 10^4`$) or more highly eccentric (greater than 0.4), the resonances closest to the planet did not capture and hold particles as efficiently. When the planet mass was below a Saturn mass, the 4:3 resonance also contributed to the particle distribution resulting in dominant symmetric four peaks. The asymmetries observed in the $`ϵ`$ Eridani image were not observed in the dust distribution so we consider planets less massive than Saturn unlikely to explain the particle distribution. When the planet eccentricity was below 0.15, the azimuthal density variations in the dust distribution were too low to account for the morphology in the $`ϵ`$ Eridani disk.

Our model differs from that proposed by Ozernoy et al. (2000) in a number of ways. The period of the orbital planet in our model is 280 years which should cause the pattern to revolve by about the star by $`1.3^{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$, faster than the $`0.7^{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$ estimated by Ozernoy et al. (2000), where the model planet semi-major axis is $`60`$AU rather than at $`40`$AU. Our model planet is located to the north of the star, rather than to the west of the star. Our model planet mass is similar to theirs but at a moderate eccentricity. Our model dust concentrations are a result of segregation in the phase of a resonant angle, rather than caused by a large libration amplitude. Furthermore, because of the eccentricity of the planet, our model predicts that the morphology of the dusty ring will vary, as well as revolve as the planet orbits about the star.

The initial conditions of our simulations cause many of the particles to begin trapped in the resonances and at fairly low eccentricity. It is possible that low eccentricity planetesimals exist in the system and that they are the source of the dust particles that we see. Alternatively the planetesimals in the system are further out and the dust particles become trapped in the resonances as they spiral in toward the planet. Further simulations would be required to differentiate between these possibilities. In either case, resonant capture into these resonances is less likely and less prolonged when the planet mass or eccentricity is high. If the planet mass is too low then it cannot be responsible for clearing a gap or central region in the dust distribution. Additional and more massive planets would be required to do this.

It is possible that high eccentricity planets are common in the outskirts of extra-solar systems. If so then the resulting dust distributions would not only revolve (Ozernoy et al., 2000), but will also be dependent upon the orbital phase of the planets. This is an exciting prospect because there would be variations in the dust morphology on observable timescales.

This work would not have been carried out without helpful discussions with Stephen Thorndike, Joel Green and Dan Watson.