Raman response of collective modes in multicomponent superconductors

TL;DR

This paper develops a microscopic, gauge-invariant theory for the Raman response of collective modes in multicomponent superconductors, providing a unified classification framework and applying it to UTe$_2$ to identify novel in-gap resonances.

Contribution

It introduces a general, symmetry-based framework for calculating Raman responses of collective modes in multicomponent superconductors, including a classification scheme for Raman-active modes.

Findings

Derived a gauge-invariant Raman susceptibility expression.

Classified Raman-active collective modes across all crystalline point groups.

Identified in-gap Raman resonances in UTe$_2$ arising from intraband modes.

Abstract

We formulate a microscopic theory of the Raman response of superconducting collective modes in multicomponent superconductors. Starting from a general Bogoliubov--de Gennes (BdG) Hamiltonian with a separable pairing interaction, we derive a gauge-invariant expression for the Raman susceptibility, including a long-range Coulomb interaction. The resulting Raman susceptibility is directly computable for an arbitrary BdG Hamiltonian, which contains single- and multiband systems, spin-singlet and triplet order parameters, and time-reversal-symmetric and time-reversal-symmetry-breaking superconducting states. Based on the microscopic coupling between a Raman source field and collective modes, we derive a symmetry selection rule for Raman-active collective modes and show a group-theoretical classification for all crystalline point groups. This classification provides a unified framework based on the ``higher-order Lifshitz-invariant'' to identify Raman-active collective modes such as Leggett mode, Bardasis-Schrieffer (BS) mode, and clapping mode. As an application, we focus on an effective model of the heavy-fermion superconductor UTe$_2$ with a fully gapped multicomponent odd-parity pairing state. We find sharp in-gap Raman resonances below the quasiparticle continuum, which do not correspond to a conventional Leggett mode but arise from the {\it intraband} relative modes between different pairing components.