Proceeding from a microscopic model Hamiltonian for a system of Fermi particles with attraction, we have derived an effective Lagrangian, which allows analysis of the superconducting properties of the system for arbitrary fermion concentrations. Exact solution of the equations for the gap and the chemical potential enables us to examine the crossover from the regime of local pairs and superfluidity to the Cooper pairing and the BCS-like superconductivity. It is shown that the physical parameter that demarcates the regions of exotic and normal behavior is the fermion bound state energy. The expressions derived suggest that in the region of relatively low concentrations the parameters of a 2D metal correspond to a type-II superconductor.
The crossover between the Cooper-pair condensation and the Bose-Einstein condensation of ``di-electronic'' molecules in two-dimensional superconductors is investigated in detail on the basis of the Nozi\`eres and Schmitt-Rink formalism. It is shown that temperature dependence of the chemical potential \ensuremath{\mu} so calculated is classified into two classes as decreasing temperatures; i.e., class (a) where \ensuremath{\mu} approaches the point of Bose-Einstein condensation of two-dimensional ideal Bose gas of ``di-electronic'' molecules, and class (b) where \ensuremath{\mu} diverges positively along the line of BCS-type mean-field pair condensation. This feature is rather universal irrespective of strength V of the attractive interaction of the s-wave type. While the former class (a) has been found by Schmitt-Rink, Varma, and Ruckenstein, existence of the latter class (b) is recognized here. In the case where V is fixed, class (a) is realized for electron number density N smaller than
Ncr, which is an increasing function of V, and class (b) is realized for N larger than
Ncr. If N\ensuremath{\gg}
Ncr in particular, there exists a regime, where the Fermi-liquid-like description is valid, between the BCS-type mean-field transition temperature and the Fermi temperature. In the situation where V is changed with N being fixed, low-temperature states for the strong-coupling case belong to class (a) while those for the weak-coupling case belong to class (b). Therefore, with decreasing V, the chemical potential \ensuremath{\mu}(T), at temperatures far below the Fermi temperature, shows a discontinuous jump at V=
Vcr(N) corresponding to the transition from class (a) to (b). However, this is in contradiction to a physical picture that the chemical potential should smoothly cross over between the above two limits unless the liquid-gas transition occurs. This shows in turn a necessity of improving the Nozi\`eres and Schmitt-Rink formalism itself especially in two dimensions. A preliminary approach beyond their formalism is briefly discussed.
Physical properties of two-dimensional (2D) superconductors is an active area of long time researches in which many, even principle, questions are still open. One of them is a possibility of a smooth crossover of the system from the standard Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer (BCS) regime of strongly overlapping Cooper pairs to the regime of Bose–Einstein condensation (BEC) of almost non-overlapping local pairs. The adequate to the real process description of this transition which can happen either by changing the doping or temperature would lead to a better understanding of the superconducting properties of materials. Though the crossover is not observed in one of the most important layered systems—namely, cuprate superconductors—we demonstrate that in systems with stronger electron-electron attraction it is possible. In particular, in the d-wave channel at sufficiently high doping the crossover can take place with growth of temperature two times, i.e., as BEC→BCS, and followed by reverse BCS→BEC condensation. The physical mechanisms of such transitions and possibility to detect them experimentally in real systems are discussed.
The superconducting properties of a two-dimensional metallic system with arbitrary carrier density and both local and various types of attractive indirect boson-exchange interaction in the cases of s- and d-wave pairing are analyzed and reviewed at T=0. In particular, the possibility of a crossover from the Bose–Einstein condensation regime to Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer-like superconductivity with growing carrier density and changing coupling in the case of different pairing channels is discussed. Gaussian fluctuations of the order parameter are taken into account, and the carrier density dependence of the gap magnitude is studied. The role of the form of the interparticle attractive interaction in the physical behavior of the system is also considered.
The 2D resonant Fermi gas with p -wave pairing is considered n the BCS-BEC regime. For the 2D analog of the superfluid A1 phase, the Leggett equations [1] for superfluid gap Δ and chemical potential μ are analytically solved at T = 0 and the spectrum of the collective excitations (acoustic waves) is analyzed in the BCS regime (μ > 0), where the triplet Cooper pairs emerge; in the BEC regime (μ < 0), where the triplet local pairs (molecules) emerge; and in the transition region, where μ → 0. At low temperatures, the contribution of the superfluid Fermi quasiparticles of the resonant gas to heat capacity C v and the density of normal component ρ n is also calculated. At μ = 0, the fermionic contribution to ρ n and C v are represented as power functions of temperature (ρ n ∼ T 3 and C v ∼ T 2 ). However, similar power contributions to these quantities are related to phonons (bosonic acoustic oscillations). The possibility of the experimental observation of the nontrivial topological term with the charge Q = 1 in the BCS regime of the 2D A1 phase is briefly discussed.
A phase diagram for a 2D metal with variable carrier density has been derived. It consists of a normal phase, where the order parameter is absent: a so-called “abnormal normal” phase where this parameter is also absent but the mean number of composite bosons (bound pairs) exceeds the mean number of free fermions; a pseudogap phase where the absolute value of the order parameter gradually increases but its phase is a random value, and finally a superconducting (here Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless) phase. The characteristic transition temperatures between these phases are found. The chemical potential and paramagnetic susceptibility behavior as functions of the fermion density and the temperature are also studied. An attempt is made to qualitatively compare the resulting phase diagram with the features of underdoped high-T c superconducting compounds above their critical temperature.