Ginzburg-Landau theory of superconducting surfaces under electric fields
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arXiv:cond-mat/0511364v1 [cond-mat.supr-con] 15 Nov 2005Ginzburg-Landautheoryofsuperconductingsurfacesunderelectricfields
P.Lipavsk´y1,2,K.Morawetz3,4,J.Kol´aˇcek2,T.J.Yang5
1FacultyofMathematicsandPhysics,CharlesUniversity,KeKarlovu3,12116Prague2,CzechRepublic2InstituteofPhysics,AcademyofSciences,Cukrovarnick´a10,16253Prague6,CzechRepublic3InstituteofPhysics,ChemnitzUniversityofTechnology,09107Chemnitz,Germany4Max-Planck-InstituteforthePhysicsofComplexSystems,NoethnitzerStr.38,01187Dresden,Germany5DepartmentofElectrophysics,NationalChiaoTungUniversity,Hsinchu300,Taiwan
AboundaryconditionfortheGinzburg-LandauwavefunctionatsurfacesbiasedbyastrongelectricfieldisderivedwithinthedeGennesapproach.Thisconditionprovidesasimpletheoryofthefieldeffectonthecriticaltemperatureofsuperconductinglayers.
Thecriticaltemperatureofathinsuperconducting
layerisincreasedorloweredbyanelectricfieldapplied
perpendiculartothelayer.1–5Similarlytotheconductiv-
ityofinverselayersinsemiconductors,superconductivity
ofthinmetalliclayerscanthusbecontrolledbyagate
voltage,whichmakesthesestructuresattractiveforap-
plications.
Inthispaperweshowthatthephasetransitionin
athinmetalliclayerisconvenientlydescribedbythe
Ginzburg-Landau(GL)theory,wheretheelectricfield
EenterstheGLboundaryconditionas
∇ψ
∆0=1
b0+E
b=1
N0V∞
−∞dx∆(x)
N0
(2)
derivedbydeGennes(Eq.(7-62)inRef.6).HereN0isthedensityofstatesofabulkmaterial,VistheBCS
interaction,andN(x)isthelocaldensityofstatesat
positionx.Theactualgapfunction∆(x)hasanon-
trivialprofileclosetothesurfaceatx=0,butithasonly
slowvariationatdistancesexceedingtheBCScoherence
lengthξ0=0.18¯hvF/kBTc.Forx∼ξ0itiscrudelylinear
∆(x)≈∆0(1+x/b),sothat∆0isnotthetruesurface
valuebuttheextrapolationofthegapfunctiontowardsthesurface.InEq.(2)wehaveusedtheGLcoherence
lengthatzerotemperatureξ(0)=0.74ξ0forpuremetals.
Inmeasurementsofthefieldeffectonthetransition
temperature,thezero-fieldtermb0isincludedintheref-
erencezero-biastransitiontemperature.Accordingly,we
canassumeamodelofthecrystalforwhich1/b0=0.
Thesimplestmodelofthiskindisasemi-infinitejel-
lium,whereforzerofieldthedensityofstatesisstep-
like,N(x)=N0forx>0andN(x)=0elsewhere.
Usingthatthegapfunctionisrestrictedtothecrystal,
∆(x)=0forx<0,onecancheckthatfrom(2)follows
1/b0=0.
Nowweincludetheelectricfield.Accordingtothe
Andersontheorem7,theelectricfielddoesnotchange
thethermodynamicalpropertiesdirectlybutonlyviathe
densityofstates.Thechangeofthedensityofstatesis
alsoindirect.Thepenetratingelectricfieldinducesa
deviationδnoftheelectrondensity.Thedensitydevi-
ationchangestheFermimomentum.Sincethedensity
ofstatesdependsontheFermimomentum,itsvaluebe-
comesmodified.Weexpressthiscomplicatedindirect
effectapproximativelyviaalocallinearexpansion
N(x)=N0+∂N0
Us=−1
N20V∂N0∆0δn(x).(4)
Theactualspaceprofileofδninsuperconductors
isunknown.Infact,someofrecentmeasurements
suggeststhattheelectricfieldpenetratesdeepinto
superconductors.8Interpretationoftheseobservationsis
notyetsettled,thereforeweprefertoassumethatthe
screeninginsuperconductorsissimilartothescreen-
inginnormalmetalssothatδnisnon-zeroonlyonthe
scaleoftheThomas-Fermiscreeninglength.Thetypical
Thomas-Fermilengthislessthenone˚Angstr¨om,while
thegapfunctionvariesonascaletypicaltotheBCSker-
nel∼ξ0.Accordingly,intheintegral(4)wecantake
∆(x)≈∆(0)andobtain
1
ξ2(0)1
∂n∆(0)
e.(5)
1Inthisrearrangementwehaveusedthesurfacecharge
determinedbytheappliedfieldǫ0E=−e∞0dxδn(x).
TheeffectivepotentialUsgivenby(5)dependsonbulk
materialparametersξ0,N0Vand∂N0/∂n,andonthe
ratioofthegapatthesurfacetothebulkvalue
η=∆(0)
Us=ηκ2∂lnTcmc2.(7)
HerewehaveexpressedtheelectrondensityviatheLon-
donpenetrationdepthλ2(0)=m/(µ0ne2).Itsratio
totheGLcoherencelengthdefinestheGLparameter
κ=λ(0)/ξ(0).
LetusestimatetheeffectivepotentialUsforniobium.
Thechargecarriersareelectrons,e=−|e|,withthemass
closetotheelectronrestmass,m≈1.2me.TheGL
parameterisontheedgeofthetype-IandIImaterials,
κ=0.78,andthelogarithmicderivativeisofmoderate
amplitude,∂lnTc/∂lnn=0.75(seeRef.11).Taking
η≈1onefinds,Us=−1.3106V.Asonecansee,a
largefieldE∼106V/cmisnecessarytocreateafield-
inducedcorrectionatleastcomparabletothecommonly
neglectedzero-fieldvalue1/b0∼1/cm.
Theeffectivepotential(7)isthemajorresultofthis
paper.Nowweuseitintheboundarycondition(1)to
evaluatethetransitiontemperatureT∗ofabiasedlayer
ofafinitethicknessL.Generalstepsofouranalysis
parallelthetheoryoftheLittle-Parkseffect12.Itisalsoin
acloseanalogytothetheoryofsurfacesuperconductivity
inshortcoherencelengthmaterials13.
Letusassumethattheelectricfieldisappliedonlyto
theleftsurfaceatx=0,whiletherightsurfaceatx=L
isfreeofthefield.Wetake1/b0=0forsimplicity,so
thatweusetheboundaryconditions
∇ψ
Us,(8)
∇ψξ(T∗)tanL
Us.(10)
Whenthesuperconductorhasacoherencelengthξ
whichsatisfiesthecondition(10),thenon-zeroGLwave