Macroscopic character of composite high temperature superconducting wires

Abstract

The "d-wave" symmetry of the superconducting order in the cuprate high temperature superconductors is a well established fact, and one which identifies them as "unconventional." However, in macroscopic contexts -- including many potential applications ({\it i.e.} superconducting "wires") -- the material is a composite of randomly oriented superconducting grains in a metallic matrix, in which Josephson coupling between grains mediates the onset of long-range phase coherence. Here, we analyze the physics at length scales large compared to the size of such grains, and in particular the macroscopic character of the long-range order that emerges. While XY-glass order and macroscopic d-wave superconductivity may be possible, we show that under many circumstances -- especially when the d-wave superconducting grains are embedded in a metallic matrix -- the most likely order has global s-wave symmetry.

6 pages, 2 figures

References in corpus (4)

• Size dependence of the minimum excitation gap in the Quantum Adiabatic Algorithm
• Theory of quantum metal to superconductor transitions in highly conducting systems
• Large-scale Monte Carlo simulations of the three-dimensional XY spin glass
• d-wave to s-wave to normal metal transitions in disordered superconductors

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Anomalous metals -- failed superconductors
• Anomalous Inner-Gap Structure in Transport Characteristics of Superconducting Junctions with Degraded Interfaces
• Generalization of Anderson's Theorem for Disordered Superconductors
• The sign phase transition in the problem of interfering directed paths
• Magnetoenhancement of superconductivity in composite D-wave superconductors
• Superconductor to metal transition in overdoped cuprates