Capillary-wave effects at critical wetting in type-I superconductors

H. T. Dobbs; R. Blossey

doi:10.1103/PhysRevE.61.R6049

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Capillary-wave effects at critical wetting in type-I superconductors

H. T. Dobbs, R. Blossey

DOI 10.1103/PhysRevE.61.R6049 · Physical Review E

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Abstract

We discuss the effect of fluctuations of the superconductor-normal (SC/N) interface on the (short-range) critical wetting transition in type-I superconductors. Functional renormalization of a standard effective interface Hamiltonian shows that the fluctuation regimes found for short-range critical wetting in conventional fluid systems appear in superconductors with slight modifications. Because the fluctuation parameter ω∼1/(1−2κ) depends on the Ginzburg-Landau parameter κ, strong fluctuation effects would be expected in the limit κ→1/2. However, the capillary-wave spectrum of the SC/N interface has an unusual form due to a relevant magnetic field contribution which suppresses long wavelength fluctuations, invalidating conclusions drawn from the standard effective interface Hamiltonian, and validating the results of mean-field theory.