English

Thermodynamics of a d-wave Superconductor Near a Surface

Condensed Matter 2009-10-28 v1

Abstract

We study the properties of an anisotropically paired superconductor in the presence of a specularly reflecting surface. The bulk stable phase of the superconducting order parameter is taken to have dx2y2d_{x^2-y^2} symmetry. Contributions by order parameter components of different symmetries vanish in the bulk, but may enter in the vicinity of a wall. We calculate the self-consistent order parameter and surface free energy within the quasiclassical formulation of superconductivity. We discuss, in particular, the dependence of these quantities on the degree of order parameter mixing and the surface to lattice orientation. Knowledge of the thermodynamically stable order parameter near a surface is a necessary precondition for calculating measurable surface properties which we present in a companion paper.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.cond-mat/9511027,
  title  = {Thermodynamics of a d-wave Superconductor Near a Surface},
  author = {L. J. Buchholtz and Mario Palumbo and D. Rainer and J. A. Sauls},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/9511027},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

12 pages of revtex text with 12 compressed and encoded figures. To appear in J. Low Temp. Phys., December, 1995