Fractal superconductivity near localization threshold

DOI10.1016/J.AOP.2010.04.001MaRDI QIDQ986517zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors M. V. Feigel'man, Vladimir E. Kravtsov, Emilio Cuevas, L. B. Ioffe

Publication date 11 August 2010

Published in Annals of Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1002.0859

disorder superconductor-insulator transition localization superconductivity

Quantum mechanics on special spaces: manifolds, fractals, graphs, lattices (81Q35) Statistical mechanics of superconductors (82D55)

Abstract: We develop a semi-quantitative theory of electron pairing and resulting superconductivity in bulk "poor conductors" in which Fermi energy

E_{F}

is located in the region of localized states not so far from the Anderson mobility edge

E_{c}

. We review the existing theories and experimental data and argue that a large class of disordered films is described by this model. Our theoretical analysis is based on the analytical treatment of pairing correlations, described in the basis of the exact single-particle eigenstates of the 3D Anderson model, which we combine with numerical data on eigenfunction correlations. Fractal nature of critical wavefunction's correlations is shown to be crucial for the physics of these systems. We identify three distinct phases: 'critical' superconductive state formed at

E_{F} = E_{c}

, superconducting state with a strong pseudogap, realized due to pairing of weakly localized electrons and insulating state realized at

E_{F}

still deeper inside localized band. The 'critical' superconducting phase is characterized by the enhancement of the transition temperature with respect to BCS result, by the inhomogeneous spatial distribution of superconductive order parameter and local density of states. The major new feature of the pseudo-gaped state is the presence of two independent energy scales: superconducting gap

D e l t a

, that is due to many-body correlations and a new "pseudogap" energy scale

D e l t a_{P}

which characterizes typical binding energy of localized electron pairs and leads to the insulating behavior of the resistivity as a function of temperature above superconductive

T_{c}

. Two gap nature of the "pseudo-gaped superconductor" is shown to lead to a number of unusual physical properties.

Review text

This paper deals with a generalized version of the BCS-like theory of superconductivity that is appropriate for poor three-dimensional conductors in which the Fermi level is located in the vicinity of the mobility edge. The developed theory neglects the effects of the Coulomb repulsion. The main results of this paper refer to the following directions: {\parindent=8mm \begin{itemize}\item[(i)]insulating behavior of the resistivity in a wide range of temperatures above the critical temperature \(T_c\); \item[(ii)]formation of an almost hard gap without coherence peaks in the density of states above \(T_c\) with the gap value of the gap that fluctuates significantly from point to point; \item[(iii)]the magnitude of the coherence peaks fluctuates from point to point, these fluctuations become very large close to the superconductor-insulator transition; \item[(iv)]two-peak feature in differential conductance at moderate transmission probabilities as measured by the Andreev point-contact spectroscopy below \(T_c\); \item[(v)]strong temperature dependence of the total spectral weight of the high-frequency conductivity which shows with a loss of major part of the high-frequency at temperatures \(T \leq\Delta_P\), and its re-appearance below \(T_c\). \end{itemize}} This paper concludes with a discussion of the experimental predictions of the theory and the theoretical issues that remain unsolved.

Recommendations

Cites work

Cited in

(13)

This page was built for publication: Fractal superconductivity near localization threshold

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q986517)