Effect of superconducting fluctuations on ultrasound in an unconventional superconductor

M. S. Mar’enko; C. Bourbonnais; A.-M. S. Tremblay

doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.72.024508

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Effect of superconducting fluctuations on ultrasound in an unconventional superconductor

M. S. Mar’enko, C. Bourbonnais, A.-M. S. Tremblay

DOI 10.1103/PhysRevB.72.024508 · Physical Review B

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Abstract

We study the renormalization of sound attenuation and sound velocity by fluctuation Cooper pairs in layered superconductors. We consider the influence of s- and d-wave symmetry of the fluctuating order parameter on both longitudinal and transverse phonon modes. We show that both unconventional order parameter symmetry and transverse sound polarization suppress the Aslamazov-Larkin and Maki-Thompson terms, while the density-of-states contribution is the least affected. The combination of these effects can change the sign of the overall fluctuation corrections above Tc. We also compare the results obtained using the Ginzburg-Landau formalism with a microscopic derivation of the fluctuation corrections to the sound velocity in both s- and d-wave superconductors. These calculations are motivated by ongoing ultrasound measurements in organic superconductors.