Ginzburg-Landau-type theory of spin superconductivity

Abstract

Spin superconductivity is a recently proposed analogue of conventional charge superconductivity, in which spin currents flow without dissipation but charge currents do not. Here we derive a universal framework for describing the properties of a spin superconductor along similar lines to the Ginzburg-Landau equations that describe conventional superconductors, and show that the second of these Ginzburg-Landau-type equations is equivalent to a generalized London equation. Just as the GL equations enabled researchers to explore the behaviour of charge superconductors, our Ginzburg-Landau-type equations enable us to make a number of non-trivial predictions about the potential behaviour of putative spin superconductor. They enable us to calculate the super spin current in a spin superconductor under a uniform electric field or that induced by a thin conducting wire. Moreover, they allow us to predict the emergence of new phenomena, including the spin-current Josephson effect in which a time-independent magnetic field induces a time-dependent spin current.