Spin-Wave Contribution to the Nuclear Spin-Lattice Relaxation in Triplet Superconductors

Abstract

We discuss collective spin-wave excitations in triplet superconductors with an easy axis anisotropy for the order parameter. Using a microscopic model for interacting electrons, we estimate the frequency of such excitations in Bechgaard salts and ruthenate superconductors to be 1 and 20 GHz, respectively. We introduce an effective bosonic model to describe spin-wave excitations and calculate their contribution to the nuclear spin-lattice relaxation rate. We find that, in the experimentally relevant regime of temperatures, this mechanism leads to the power law scaling of 1=T1 with temperature. For two- and three-dimensional systems, the scaling exponents are 3 and 5, respectively. We discuss experimental manifestations of the spin-wave mechanism of the nuclear spin-lattice relaxation.