Signatures of superconducting gap inhomogeneities in optical properties
J. P. F. LeBlanc, E. J. Nicol, J. P. Carbotte
DOI 10.1103/PhysRevB.78.094513 · Physical Review B
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Abstract
Scanning tunneling spectroscopy applied to the high-Tc cuprates has revealed significant spatial inhomogeneity on the nanoscale. Regions on the order of a coherence length in size show variations of the magnitude of the superconducting gap of order ±20% or more. An important unresolved question is whether or not these variations are also present in the bulk, and how they influence superconducting properties. As many theories and data analyses for high-Tc superconductivity assume spatial homogeneity of the gap magnitude, this is a pressing question. We consider the far-infrared optical conductivity and evaluate, within an effective-medium approximation, what signatures of spatial variations in gap magnitude are present in various optical quantities. In addition to the case of d-wave superconductivity, relevant to the high-Tc cuprates, we have also considered s-wave gap symmetry in order to provide expected signatures of inhomogeneities for superconductors in general. While signatures of gap inhomogeneities can be strongly manifested in s-wave superconductors, we find that the far-infrared optical conductivity in d-wave is robust against such inhomogeneity, such that any changes maintain the character of a curve for a single d-wave gap.
Source-reported materials — not catalogue approval
| Formula | Reported Tc (K) | Pressure (GPa) | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ Archive — visibility unverified Source-occurrence policy only; no material identity or catalogue acceptance is inferred from the formula. | 89 | Pressure not reported | unknown |
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