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Physical review. B, Condensed matter

BCS-Bose model of exotic superconductors: Generalized coherence length

M. Casas, J. M. Getino, MANUEL DE LLANO, Antonio Puente, R. M. Quick, H. Rubio, DAVID M. VAN DER WALT

Published Dec 1, 1994• 31 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Analytic expressions are derived for the root-mean-square (rms) radius of a pair of fermions in a BCS many-fermion state in one, two, and three dimensions, in terms of the BCS gap energy and the associated chemical potential. These expressions are valid for any coupling strength of any pair interaction model implying a momentum-independent gap energy. The latter holds, e.g., for an attractive \ensuremath{\delta} pair potential examined in the one-dimensional (1D) case (whose N-fermion ground state can be determined exactly) or for the BCS (electron-phonon) model interaction in any dimension. Weak-coupling and/or high-density limits for the rms radius are identical in 1D, 2D, and 3D, and reduce to the familiar well-known Pippard result to within a factor of order unity. In contrast, strong-coupling and/or low-density limits coincide in 1D and 3D, but differ by a factor of order unity in the 2D limit, and in each case are essentially the size of a single, isolated pair. The 1D \ensuremath{\delta} interaction McGuire-Yang-Gaudin many-fermion model is studied in detail. The interaction renormalization scheme of Miyake and of Randeria, Duan, and Shieh, and the BCS interaction model, both in 2D, are employed to analyze cuprate superconductor empirical results. Reasonable agreement between theoretical rms radii with experimental coherence lengths suggests that cuprates can be described moderately well as weakly coupled superconductors within the BCS-Bose formalism.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.50.15945

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Following an approach similar to that of Miyake or Randeria, Duan, and Shieh in two dimensions, we study a three-dimensional many-fermion gas at zero temperature interacting via some short-ranged two-body potential. To accommodate a possible singularity (e.g., the Coulomb repulsion) in the interaction, the potential is eliminated in favor of the two-body scattering t-matrix, the low-energy form of which is expressible in terms of the s-wave scattering length ${\mathit{a}}_{\mathit{s}}$. The BCS gap equation for s-wave pairing is then solved simultaneously with the number equation in order to self-consistently obtain the zero-temperature BCS gap \ensuremath{\Delta} as well as the chemical potential \ensuremath{\mu} as functions of the dimensionless coupling variable \ensuremath{\lambda}\ensuremath{\equiv}${\mathit{k}}_{\mathit{Fa}\mathit{s}}$, where ${\mathit{k}}_{\mathit{F}}$ is the Fermi momentum. Results are valid for arbitrary coupling strength, and in the weak coupling limit reproduce the standard BCS results. Finally, root-mean-square pair sizes are obtained as a function of \ensuremath{\lambda} and compared with experimental values.

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Bosonization of Cooper pairs and novel Bose-liquid superconductivity and superfluidity in high-$T_c$ cuprates and other systems

Safarali Dzhumanov

The criteria for bosonization of Cooper pairs and novel Bose-liquid superconductivity and superfluidity in high-$T_c$ cuprates and other pseudogap matters are formulated by using the uncertainty principle and the boson mean field theory. We argue that the BCS-type s- or d-wave superconductivity occurring in the fermionic limit of Cooper pairs (which exist in ordinary metals and heavily overdoped cuprates with large Fermi energies) is not characteristic of underdoped to overdoped cuprates with low Fermi energies. The superconducting order parameter in high-$T_c$ cuprates and other pseudogap matters cannot be determined as the BCS-like (s- or d-wave) gap. We show that the unconventional superconductivity/superfluidity occurring in the bosonic limit of Cooper pairs exists in low Fermi energy systems where the bosonic Cooper pairs are formed at a pseudogap temperature T* above the uperconducting/superfluid transition temperature $T_c$ and then such bosons condenses into a Bose superfluid at $T_c$. The pair condensation of attracting bosons occurs at $T_c$ and then their single particle condensation sets in at $T_c^*$ lower than $T_c$ (in three dimensions (3D)) or at T=0 (in two dimensions (2D)). The coherent single particle and pair condensates of bosons exist as two distinct superfluid phases below $T_c$. By solving the mean field equations for high-$T_c$ cuprates, the novel superconducting states (i.e., a vortex-like state existing below the temperature $T_v=T^{2D}_c$ lower than T* but higher than $T_c=T^{3D}_c$ and two superconducting phases below $T_c$) and their properties characterized by the boson superfluid stiffness are determined and compared with the key experimental findings. The novel Bose-liquid superconductivity and superfluidity exists also in other exotic superconductors/superfluids, including quantum liquids, atomic Fermi gases and low-density nuclear matter.

arXiv:1709.02110•Sep 7, 2017•0 citations
Analytic expressions are derived for the root-mean-square (rms) radius of a pair of fermions in a BCS many-fermion state in one, two, and three dimensions, in terms of the BCS gap energy and the associated chemical potential. These expressions are valid for any coupling strength of any pair interaction model implying a momentum-independent gap energy. The latter holds, e.g., for an attractive \ensuremath{\delta} pair potential examined in the one-dimensional (1D) case (whose N-fermion ground state can be determined exactly) or for the BCS (electron-phonon) model interaction in any dimension. Weak-coupling and/or high-density limits for the rms radius are identical in 1D, 2D, and 3D, and reduce to the familiar well-known Pippard result to within a factor of order unity. In contrast, strong-coupling and/or low-density limits coincide in 1D and 3D, but differ by a factor of order unity in the 2D limit, and in each case are essentially the size of a single, isolated pair. The 1D \ensuremath{\delta} interaction McGuire-Yang-Gaudin many-fermion model is studied in detail. The interaction renormalization scheme of Miyake and of Randeria, Duan, and Shieh, and the BCS interaction model, both in 2D, are employed to analyze cuprate superconductor empirical results. Reasonable agreement between theoretical rms radii with experimental coherence lengths suggests that cuprates can be described moderately well as weakly coupled superconductors within the BCS-Bose formalism.
Following an approach similar to that of Miyake or Randeria, Duan, and Shieh in two dimensions, we study a three-dimensional many-fermion gas at zero temperature interacting via some short-ranged two-body potential. To accommodate a possible singularity (e.g., the Coulomb repulsion) in the interaction, the potential is eliminated in favor of the two-body scattering t-matrix, the low-energy form of which is expressible in terms of the s-wave scattering length as{\mathit{a}}_{\mathit{s}}as​. The BCS gap equation for s-wave pairing is then solved simultaneously with the number equation in order to self-consistently obtain the zero-temperature BCS gap \ensuremath{\Delta} as well as the chemical potential \ensuremath{\mu} as functions of the dimensionless coupling variable \ensuremath{\lambda}\ensuremath{\equiv}kFas{\mathit{k}}_{\mathit{Fa}\mathit{s}}kFas​, where kF{\mathit{k}}_{\mathit{F}}kF​ is the Fermi momentum. Results are valid for arbitrary coupling strength, and in the weak coupling limit reproduce the standard BCS results. Finally, root-mean-square pair sizes are obtained as a function of \ensuremath{\lambda} and compared with experimental values.
Unification of the BCS and the Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) theories is surveyed in detail via a generalized BEC (GBEC) finite-temperature statistical formalism. Its major difference with BCS theory is that it can be diagonalized exactly. Under specified conditions it yields the precise BCS gap equation for all temperatures as well as the precise BCS zero-temperature condensation energy for all couplings, thereby suggesting that a BCS condensate is a BE condensate in a ternary mixture of kinematically independent unpaired electrons coexisting with equally proportioned weakly-bound two-electron and two-hole Cooper pairs. Without abandoning the electron-phonon mechanism in moderately weak coupling it suffices, in principle, to reproduce the unusually high values of Tc (in units of the Fermi temperature TF) of 0.01-0.05 empirically reported in the so-called "exotic" superconductors of the Uemura plot, including cuprates, in contrast to the low values of Tc/TF ≤ 10-3 roughly reproduced by BCS theory for conventional (mostly elemental) superconductors. Replacing the characteristic phonon-exchange Debye temperature by a characteristic magnon-exchange one more than twice in size can lead to a simple interaction model associated with spin-fluctuation-mediated pairing.
We review Cooper pairing starting from its simplest, original 1956 version of two electrons interacting above the Fermi sea of an ideal Fermi gas (IFG). The two-electron interaction assumed extensively (if not exclusively), is the attractive two-parameter Cooper, and then BCS, model interactions. Hole Cooper pairs (CPs) and electron-hole CPs are then included along with the initial electron-CPs in terms of the single-fermion Green functions implied by the Bethe-Salpeter (BS) integral equation in the ladder approximation. A purely-imaginary CP energy "instability" is recovered that is well-documented in the literature at least since the late 1950's. A novel interpretation of this instability is that an unperturbed Hamiltonian different from the IFG one first used by Cooper suffices to obtain meaningful CPs. Instead of the IFG sea, a BCS-correlated Fermi "sea" used in the BS equation interpreted as the associated unperturbed Hamiltonian leads to real CP energies (with small imaginary terms implying damping). We survey how this has been achieved in 1D, 2D and 3D, and give a more detailed treatment in 2D. A vital distinction is that the original and generalized CPs are true bosons in contrast with BCS pairs that are not ordinary bosons but rather "hard-core bosons" as they do not obey strict Bose commutation rules. Another important common element of the original or generalized CPs (particularly in 2D where ordinary Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) does not occur) is their linear dispersion relation in leading order in the total (or, center-of-mass) momentum power-series expansion of the CP energy. This theory encompasses, in principle, all empirically known superconductors including quasi-2D superconductors such as cuprates and the ET organic compounds, as well as quasi-1D ones such as the organometallic Bechgaard salts and nanotubes.
We consider a fermionic system at zero temperature interacting through an effective nonretarded potential of the type introduced by Nozi\`eres and Schmitt-Rink, and calculate the phase coherence length ${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{\mathrm{phase}}$ (associated with the spatial fluctuations of the superconducting order parameter) by exploiting a functional-integral formulation for the correlation functions and the associated loop expansion. This formulation is especially suited to follow the evolution of the fermionic system from a BCS-type superconductor for weak coupling to a Bose-condensed system for strong coupling, since in the latter limit a direct mapping of the original fermionic system onto an effective system of bosons with a residual boson-boson interaction can be established. Explicit calculations are performed at the one-loop order. The phase coherence length ${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{\mathrm{phase}}$ is compared with the coherence length ${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{\mathrm{pair}}$ for two-electron correlation, which is relevant to distinguish the weak- (kF{\mathit{k}}_{\mathit{F}}kF​${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{\mathrm{pair}}$\ensuremath{\gg}1) from the strong- (kF{\mathit{k}}_{\mathit{F}}kF​${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{\mathrm{pair}}$\ensuremath{\ll}1) coupling limits (kF{\mathit{k}}_{\mathit{F}}kF​ being the Fermi wave vector) as well as to follow the crossover in between. It is shown that ${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{\mathrm{phase}}$ coincides with ${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{\mathrm{pair}}$ down to kF{\mathit{k}}_{\mathit{F}}kF​${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{\mathrm{pair}}$\ensuremath{\simeq}10, ${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{\mathrm{pair}}$ in turn coinciding with the Pippard coherence length. In the strong-coupling limit we find instead that ${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{\mathrm{phase}}$\ensuremath{\gg}${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{\mathrm{pair}}$, with ${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{\mathrm{pair}}$ coinciding with the radius of the bound-electron pair. From the mapping onto an effective system of bosons in the strong-coupling limit we further relate ${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{\mathrm{pair}}$ with the ``range'' of the residual boson-boson interaction, which is physically the only significant length associated with the dynamics of the bosonic system. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.
Remarkably the one-dimensional (1D) many-fermion fluid with pairwise-attractive \ensuremath{\delta}-function interactions is exactly solvable in that one can determine the exact many-body ground-state energy and chemical potential for all values of the coupling strength and/or density. Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) theory is tested in this model by numerically determining the BCS total ground-state energy and chemical potential as a function of the coupling strength and/or density, and comparing with the exact results. As is the case for 2D and 3D theories, two regimes are apparent: (a) a BCS-proper regime of weakly coupled, overlapping Cooper pairs and (b) a Bose-gas regime of strongly interacting fermions which pair to form an ideal Bose gas at low density. In the two extremes the BCS energy and chemical potential are identical to the exact values and are moderately close for intermediate coupling and/or density.
Bosonization of Cooper pairs and novel Bose-liquid superconductivity and superfluidity in high-TcT_cTc​ cuprates and other systems
The criteria for bosonization of Cooper pairs and novel Bose-liquid superconductivity and superfluidity in high-TcT_cTc​ cuprates and other pseudogap matters are formulated by using the uncertainty principle and the boson mean field theory. We argue that the BCS-type s- or d-wave superconductivity occurring in the fermionic limit of Cooper pairs (which exist in ordinary metals and heavily overdoped cuprates with large Fermi energies) is not characteristic of underdoped to overdoped cuprates with low Fermi energies. The superconducting order parameter in high-TcT_cTc​ cuprates and other pseudogap matters cannot be determined as the BCS-like (s- or d-wave) gap. We show that the unconventional superconductivity/superfluidity occurring in the bosonic limit of Cooper pairs exists in low Fermi energy systems where the bosonic Cooper pairs are formed at a pseudogap temperature T* above the uperconducting/superfluid transition temperature TcT_cTc​ and then such bosons condenses into a Bose superfluid at TcT_cTc​. The pair condensation of attracting bosons occurs at TcT_cTc​ and then their single particle condensation sets in at Tc∗T_c^*Tc∗​ lower than TcT_cTc​ (in three dimensions (3D)) or at T=0 (in two dimensions (2D)). The coherent single particle and pair condensates of bosons exist as two distinct superfluid phases below TcT_cTc​. By solving the mean field equations for high-TcT_cTc​ cuprates, the novel superconducting states (i.e., a vortex-like state existing below the temperature Tv=Tc2DT_v=T^{2D}_cTv​=Tc2D​ lower than T* but higher than Tc=Tc3DT_c=T^{3D}_cTc​=Tc3D​ and two superconducting phases below TcT_cTc​) and their properties characterized by the boson superfluid stiffness are determined and compared with the key experimental findings. The novel Bose-liquid superconductivity and superfluidity exists also in other exotic superconductors/superfluids, including quantum liquids, atomic Fermi gases and low-density nuclear matter.