Relaxation of Hot Quasiparticles in a d-Wave Superconductor

P. C. Howell; A. Rosch; P. J. Hirschfeld

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.037003

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Relaxation of Hot Quasiparticles in a d-Wave Superconductor

P. C. Howell, A. Rosch, P. J. Hirschfeld

DOI 10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.037003 · Physical Review Letters

T1

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Abstract

Motivated by recent pump-probe experiments we consider the processes by which “hot” quasiparticles produced near the antinodes of a d-wave superconductor can relax. We show that in a large region of momentum space processes which break Cooper pairs are forbidden by energy and momentum conservation. Equilibration then occurs by scattering with thermal quasiparticles: Umklapp scattering is exponentially suppressed at low temperatures, but small-angle scattering leads to power-law behavior. By solving the Boltzmann equation analytically we make detailed predictions for the temperature and intensity dependence of these processes, which we compare with experiment.

Source-reported materials — not catalogue approval

Formula	Reported Tc (K)	Pressure (GPa)	Type
YBa2Cu3O6.52 Archive — visibility unverified Source-occurrence policy only; no material identity or catalogue acceptance is inferred from the formula.	—	Pressure not reported	unknown