Parity effect in mesoscopic and nanoscopic superconducting particles

Date
2001
Authors
Kulik, I. O.
Boyaci, H.
Gedik, Z.
Advisor
Instructor
Source Title
Physica C: Superconductivity and its Applications
Print ISSN
0921-4534
Electronic ISSN
Publisher
Elsevier B.V.
Volume
352
Issue
1-4
Pages
46 - 50
Language
English
Type
Article
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Abstract

Superconductivity in small metallic specimens is studied with regard to the size dependence of the parity gap (ΔP), a parameter distinguishing between the energy of even and odd number of electrons in the granule. ΔP is shown to be an increasing function of level spacing δ. The energy gap of superconductor Δ, on the other hand, decreases with increasing δ and vanishes at δ = δc which is of the order of Δ. However, non-zero value of ΔP persists above δc in a gapless superconducting-insulating state. Level degeneracy in small specimens having perfect geometry changes the size dependence of the parity gap, the Josephson effect, and flux quantization. Parity gap is evaluated using an interpolation procedure between the continuum limit (δ ≪ Δ), the moderate mesoscopic regime (δ ∼ Δ), and the nanoscopic scale (δ ≫ Δ), for which an exact solution to the pairing problem is provided with the numeric diagonalization of system Hamiltonian in a small metallic cluster

Course
Other identifiers
Book Title
Keywords
Gapless state, Mesoscopic superconductivity, Parity effect, Parity gap, Pseudogap, Strongly correlated systems, Continuum mechanics, Electron transitions, Energy gap, Fermi level, Hamiltonians, Interpolation, Optical correlation, Mesoscopic superconductivity, Parity effect, Pseudogap, Superconducting magnets
Citation
Published Version (Please cite this version)