Role of the Anisotropy of Lead in BSCCO-Pb Josephson Tunneling

A. I. M. Rae

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.84.2235

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Role of the Anisotropy of Lead in BSCCO-Pb Josephson Tunneling

A. I. M. Rae

DOI 10.1103/PhysRevLett.84.2235 · Physical Review Letters

T1

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Abstract

Recent experimental studies of Josephson tunneling between single crystals of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x (BSCCO) and lead (Pb) films have revealed small, but finite, critical currents along the c axis of BSCCO, despite this being forbidden by symmetry. We show that the known anisotropy of the Pb order parameter would allow quite strong coupling between single crystals of BSCCO and Pb if the tunneling direction were along the BSCCO c axis and the [[110 direction of the Pb crystal. This mechanism could account for the experimental results on granular Pb films if there is a few percent preferred orientation in the films. All the current experimental evidence is therefore consistent with BSCCO being a pure d-wave superconductor.

Source-reported materials — not catalogue approval

Formula	Reported Tc (K)	Pressure (GPa)	Type
Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x Archive — visibility unverified Source-occurrence policy only; no material identity or catalogue acceptance is inferred from the formula.	—	Pressure not reported	unknown
Pb Archive — visibility unverified Source-occurrence policy only; no material identity or catalogue acceptance is inferred from the formula.	—	Pressure not reported	unknown
YBa2Cu3O7 Archive — visibility unverified Source-occurrence policy only; no material identity or catalogue acceptance is inferred from the formula.	—	Pressure not reported	unknown