We have shown that in systems where the Coulomb interaction is strongly suppressed, the superconducting transition temperature may be enhanced by disorder close to the Anderson localization transition. This phenomenon is based on the enhancement by disorder of the matrix element of attraction in the Cooper channel. For enhancement to take place one needs (i) strong disorder which makes the single-particle wave functions strongly inhomogeneous in space and (ii) strong correlation of the patterns of inhomogeneity for different wavefunctions. One case where such correlation is well known is the system close to the Anderson transition. We review the notion of multifractality of wavefunctions in this region and show how the enhancement of T c arises out of the multifractal correlations.
We have shown that in systems where the Coulomb interaction is strongly suppressed, the superconducting transition temperature may be enhanced by disorder close to the Anderson localization transition. This phenomenon is based on the enhancement by disorder of the matrix element of attraction in the Cooper channel. For enhancement to take place one needs (i) strong disorder which makes the single-particle wave functions strongly inhomogeneous in space and (ii) strong correlation of the patterns of inhomogeneity for different wavefunctions. One case where such correlation is well known is the system close to the Anderson transition. We review the notion of multifractality of wavefunctions in this region and show how the enhancement of T c arises out of the multifractal correlations.
Using the generalized DMFT+Σ approach, we study the influence of disorder on single-particle properties of the normal phase and the superconducting transition temperature in the attractive Hubbard model. A wide range of attractive potentials U is studied, from the weak coupling region, where both the instability of the normal phase and superconductivity are well described by the BCS model, to the strong-coupling region, where the superconducting transition is due to Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of compact Cooper pairs, formed at temperatures much higher than the superconducting transition temperature. We study two typical models of the conduction band with semi-elliptic and flat densities of states, respectively appropriate for three-dimensional and two-dimensional systems. For the semi-elliptic density of states, the disorder influence on all single-particle properties (e.g., density of states) is universal for an arbitrary strength of electronic correlations and disorder and is due to only the general disorder widening of the conduction band. In the case of a flat density of states, universality is absent in the general case, but still the disorder influence is mainly due to band widening, and the universal behavior is restored for large enough disorder. Using the combination of DMFT+Σ and Nozieres-Schmitt-Rink approximations, we study the disorder influence on the superconducting transition temperature T c for a range of characteristic values of U and disorder, including the BCS-BEC crossover region and the limit of strong-coupling. Disorder can either suppress T c (in the weak-coupling region) or significantly increase T c (in the strong-coupling region). However, in all cases, the generalized Anderson theorem is valid and all changes of the superconducting critical temperature are essentially due to only the general disorder widening of the conduction band.
We study disorder effects upon the temperature behavior of the upper critical magnetic field in an attractive Hubbard model within the generalized DMFT+Σ approach. We consider the wide range of attraction potentials U —from the weak coupling limit, where superconductivity is described by BCS model, up to the strong coupling limit, where superconducting transition is related to Bose–Einstein condensation (BEC) of compact Cooper pairs, formed at temperatures significantly higher than superconducting transition temperature, as well as the wide range of disorder—from weak to strong, when the system is in the vicinity of Anderson transition. The growth of coupling strength leads to the rapid growth of H c 2 ( T ), especially at low temperatures. In BEC limit and in the region of BCS–BEC crossover H c 2 ( T ), dependence becomes practically linear. Disordering also leads to the general growth of H c 2 ( T ). In BCS limit of weak coupling increasing disorder lead both to the growth of the slope of the upper critical field in the vicinity of the transition point and to the increase of H c 2 ( T ) in the low temperature region. In the limit of strong disorder in the vicinity of the Anderson transition localization corrections lead to the additional growth of H c 2 ( T ) at low temperatures, so that the H c 2 ( T ) dependence becomes concave. In BCS–BEC crossover region and in BEC limit disorder only slightly influences the slope of the upper critical field close to T c . However, in the low temperature region H c 2 ( T may significantly grow with disorder in the vicinity of the Anderson transition, where localization corrections notably increase H c 2 ( T = 0) also making H c 2 ( T ) dependence concave.
We study the interplay of superconductivity and disorder by solving numerically the Bogoliubov--de Gennes equations in a two-dimensional lattice of size $80\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}80$, which makes investigating the weak-coupling limit possible. In contrast with results in the strong-coupling region, we observe enhancement of superconductivity and intriguing multifractal-like features such as a broad log-normal spatial distribution of the order parameter, a parabolic singularity spectrum, and level statistics consistent with those of a disordered metal at the Anderson transition. The calculation of the superfluid density, including small phase fluctuations, reveals that, despite this intricate spatial structure, phase coherence still holds for sufficiently weak disorder. It breaks down only for stronger disorder but before the insulating transition takes place.
We study the disorder effects upon superconducting transition temperature T c and the number of local pairs within the attractive Hubbard model in the combined Nozieres-Schmitt-Rink and DMFT + Σ approximations. We analyze the wide range of attractive interaction U, from the weak coupling region, where instability of the normal phase and superconductivity are well described by the BCS model, to the limit of strong coupling, where superconducting transition is determined by Bose-Einstein condensation of compact Cooper pairs, forming at temperatures much higher than superconducting transition temperature. It is shown that disorder can either suppress T c in the weak coupling limit, or significantly enhance T c in the case of strong coupling. However, in all cases we actually prove the validity of generalized Anderson theorem, so that all changes in T c are related to change in the effective bandwidth due to disorder. Similarly, disorder effects on the number of local pairs are only due to these band-broadening effects.
We study the interplay of disorder localization and strong local interactions within the Anderson-Hubbard model. Taking into account local Mott-Hubbard physics and static screening of the disorder potential, the system is mapped onto an effective single-particle Anderson model, which is studied within the self-consistent theory of electron localization. For fermions, we find rich nonmonotonic behavior of the localization length ξ, particularly in two-dimensional systems, including an interaction-induced exponential enhancement of ξ for small and intermediate disorders and a strong reduction of ξ due to hopping suppression by strong interactions. In three dimensions, we identify for half filling a Mott-Hubbard-assisted Anderson localized phase existing between the metallic and the Mott-Hubbardgapped phases. For small U there is re-entrant behavior from the Anderson localized phase to the metallic phase. For bosons, the unrestricted particle occupation number per lattice site yields a monotonic enhancement of ξ as a function of decreasing interaction, which we assume to persist until the superfluid Bose- Einstein condensate phase is entered. Besides, we study cold atomic gases expanding, by a diffusion process, in a weak random potential. We show that the density-density correlation function of the expanding gas is strongly affected by disorder and we estimate the typical size of a speckle spot, i.e., a region of enhanced or depleted density. Both a Fermi gas and a Bose-Einstein condensate (in a mean-field approach) are considered.
We present a brief review of our studies of disorder influence upon Ginzburg-Landau expansion coefficients in Anderson-Hubbard model with attraction in the framework of the generalized DMFT + Σ approximation. A wide range of attractive potentials U is considered from weak coupling limit, where superconductivity is described by BCS model, to the limit of very strong coupling, where superconducting transition is related to the Bose-Einstein condensation of compact Cooper pairs, which are formed at temperatures significantly higher than the superconducting transition temperature, as well as the wide range of disorders from weak to strong, when the system is in the vicinity of Anderson transition. For the same range of parameters we study in detail the temperature behavior of orbital and paramagnetic upper critical field H c2 ( T ), which demonstrates the anomalies due both to the growth of attractive potential and to the effects of strong disordering.