First-order phase transition between superconducting and charge/spin density wave states causes their coexistence in organic metals

The interplay between superconductivity (SC) and spin/charge density wave (DW) in organic metals shows many similarities to high-Tc superconductors. It also contains many puzzles, for example, the anisotropic SC onset observed and the severalfold increase of the upper critical field Hc2 in the coexistence region, as well as the microscopic origin of SC/DW phase separation there. In this paper, by the direct calculation of the Landau expansion for DW free energy, we argue that the phase transition between DW and metallic/SC phase in organic superconductors goes by first order at low-enough temperature, which explains the spatial segregation of DW and SC at large length scale, consistent with experimental observations. This first-order phase transition is not directly related to SC and happens even above the SC transition temperature.

Automated summary

The interplay between superconductivity and spin/charge density wave in organic metals is similar to high-Tc superconductors. This study shows that the phase transition between the two phases in organic superconductors is a first-order phase transition at low enough temperature, explaining the observed spatial segregation phenomenon.