English

Fractal superconductivity near localization threshold

Superconductivity 2015-05-18 v2

Abstract

We develop a semi-quantitative theory of electron pairing and resulting superconductivity in bulk "poor conductors" in which Fermi energy EFE_F is located in the region of localized states not so far from the Anderson mobility edge EcE_c. We review the existing theories and experimental data and argue that a large class of disordered films is described by this model. Our theoretical analysis is based on the analytical treatment of pairing correlations, described in the basis of the exact single-particle eigenstates of the 3D Anderson model, which we combine with numerical data on eigenfunction correlations. Fractal nature of critical wavefunction's correlations is shown to be crucial for the physics of these systems. We identify three distinct phases: 'critical' superconductive state formed at EF=EcE_F=E_c, superconducting state with a strong pseudogap, realized due to pairing of weakly localized electrons and insulating state realized at EFE_F still deeper inside localized band. The 'critical' superconducting phase is characterized by the enhancement of the transition temperature with respect to BCS result, by the inhomogeneous spatial distribution of superconductive order parameter and local density of states. The major new feature of the pseudo-gaped state is the presence of two independent energy scales: superconducting gap Δ\Delta, that is due to many-body correlations and a new "pseudogap" energy scale ΔP\Delta_P which characterizes typical binding energy of localized electron pairs and leads to the insulating behavior of the resistivity as a function of temperature above superconductive TcT_c. Two gap nature of the "pseudo-gaped superconductor" is shown to lead to a number of unusual physical properties.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1002.0859,
  title  = {Fractal superconductivity near localization threshold},
  author = {M. V. Feigel'man and L. B. Ioffe and V. E. Kravtsov and E. Cuevas},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1002.0859},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

110 pages, 39 figures. The revised version corrects a number of typos, adds references and discussion of recent results

R2 v1 2026-06-21T14:43:08.739Z