Anomalous mesoscopic kinetics in disordered superconductors

Mengling Hettinger; Maxim Khodas; Alex Levchenko

doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.99.174504

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Anomalous mesoscopic kinetics in disordered superconductors

Mengling Hettinger, Maxim Khodas, Alex Levchenko

DOI 10.1103/PhysRevB.99.174504 · Physical Review B

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Abstract

We study anomalous mesoscopic transport effects at the onset of the superconducting transition focusing on the observed large Nernst-Ettinghausen signal in disordered thin films. In the vicinity of the transition, as the Ginzburg-Landau coherence length of preformed Cooper pairs diverges, short-range mesoscopic fluctuations are equivalent to local fluctuations of the critical temperature. As a result, the dynamical susceptibility function of pair propagation acquires a singular mesoscopic component, and consequently, superconducting correlations give rise to enhanced mesoscopic fluctuations of thermodynamic and transport characteristics. In contrast to disordered normal metals, the rms value of mesoscopic conductivity fluctuations ceases to be universal and displays strong dependence on dimensionality and temperature and under certain conditions can exceed its quantum normal-state value by a large factor. Interestingly, we find different universality as magnetic susceptibility, conductivity, and transverse magnetic thermopower coefficients all display the same temperature dependence. Finally, we discuss an enhancement of mesoscopic effects in the Seebeck thermoelectricity and Hall conductivity fluctuations as mediated by emergent superconductivity.