Experimental implications of quantum phase fluctuations in layered superconductors

Abstract

I study the effect of quantum and thermal phase fluctuations on the in-plane and c-axis superfluid stiffness of layered d-wave superconductors. First, I show that quantum phase fluctuations in the superconductor can be damped in the presence of external screening of Coulomb interactions, and suggest an experiment to test the importance of these fluctuations, by placing a metal in close proximity to the superconductor to induce such screening. Second, I show that a combination of quantum phase fluctuations and the linear temperature dependence of the in-plane superfluid stiffness leads to a linear temperature dependence of the c-axis penetration depth, below a temperature scale determined by the magnitude of in-plane dissipation.

6 pgs, 1 figure, minor changes in comparison with c-axis expt, final published version

References in corpus (4)

• Phase fluctuations, dissipation and superfluid stiffness in d-wave superconductors
• Observability of quantum phase fluctuations in cuprate superconductors
• c-axis penetration depth in Bi${}_2$Sr${}_2$CaCu${}_2$O${}_{8+\delta }$ single crystals measured by ac-susceptibility and cavity perturbation technique
• Penetration of Josephson vortices and measurement of the c-axis penetration depth in $B{i}_{2}S{r}_{2}CaC{u}_2{O}_{8+\delta }$: Interplay of Josephson coupling, surface barrier and defects

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Nature of c-axis coupling in underdoped Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 with varying degrees of disorder
• Temperature-doping phase diagram of layered superconductors
• Role of pair-breaking and phase fluctuations in c-axis tunneling in underdoped Bi${}_2$Sr${}_2$CaCu${}_2$O${}_{8+\delta }$