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∗)tan󰀃L

Us.(10)

Whenthesuperconductorhasacoherencelengthξ

whichsatisfiesthecondition(10),thenon-zeroGLwave