Ferromagnetic behavior of a triplet superconductor

Abstract

Properties of a type II triplet superconductor with equal spin pairing are investigated using the phenomenological Ginzburg-Landau approach. It is shown that there exist two kinds of fluxons: vortices and magnetic skyrmions. Vector nature of the order parameter allows a direct coupling of the effective spin of the condensate to a magnetic field. This coupling, which is reminiscent to Zeeman interaction in the form, significantly modifies the structure of an isolated vortex, as compared to the usual Abrikosov vortex, and changes the energetics of a vortex lattice. If the coupling is sufficiently strong, then magnetization of the triplet superconductor becomes positive at high magnetic fields. Formation of spontaneous vortex state is also possible. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(99)55408-X].