The magic angle of Sr_2RuO_4: optimizing correlation-driven superconductivity

A fundamental understanding of unconventional superconductivity is crucial for engineering materials with specific order parameters or elevated superconducting transition temperatures. However, for many of these materials, such as Sr_2RuO_4, the pairing mechanism and the symmetry of the superconducting order parameter remain unclear; furthermore, reliable and efficient methods of predicting their response to tuning - e.g. via structural distortions through strain and octahedral rotations - are lacking. Here we investigate the response of superconductivity in Sr_2RuO_4 to distortions via two numerical techniques, the random phase approximation (RPA) and functional renormalization group (FRG), starting from realistic models of the electronic structure. Comparison of the results from the two techniques suggests that RPA misses the important interplay of competing fluctuation channels, while FRG reproduces key experimental findings. In accordance with earlier studies by RPA and FRG, we confirm the experimentally observed tuneability of T_c with uniaxial strain. With octahedral rotation, we find an even larger increase of T_c before superconductivity is completely suppressed in FRG, a finding that confirms experiments but is not reproduced in RPA. Throughout the parameter space investigated here, we find a dominant d_x^2-y^2 pairing symmetry from FRG. To provide benchmark results for determining the pairing symmetry experimentally by quasiparticle interference using a Scanning Tunneling Microscope, we introduce the pairing interactions into continuum local density of states calculations, enabling experimental verification of the symmetry of the order parameter via phase-referenced Bogoliubov Quasiparticle Interference imaging.