Electron-Phonon Interaction and Ultrasonic Attenuation in the Ruthenate and Cuprate superconductors

Abstract

This article derives an electron-phonon interaction suitable for interpreting ultrasonic attenuation measurements in the ruthenate and cuprate superconductors. The huge anisotropy found experimentally (Lupien et al., 2001) in Sr2RuO4 in the normal state is accounted for in terms of the layered square-lattice structure of Sr2RuO4, and the dominant contribution to the attenuation in Sr2RuO4 is found to be due to electrons in the gamma band. The experimental data in the superconducting state is found to be inconsistent with vertical lines nodes in the gap in either (100) or (110) planes. Also, a general method, based on the use of symmetry, is developed to allow for the analysis of ultrasonic attenuation experiments in superconductors in which the electronic band structure is complicated or not known. Our results, both for the normal-state anisotropy, and relating to the positions of the gap nodes in the superconducting state, are different from those obtained from analyses using a more traditional model for the electron-phonon interaction in terms of an isotropic electron stress tensor. Also, a brief discussion of the ultrasonic attenuation in UPt3 is given.

12 pages. Comments have been added to the original version of this article showing how, for the ultrasonic attenuation for a hexagonal crystal (which must be isotropic with respect to rotations about the c axis) our approach reproduces the results of the traditional isotropic electron stress tensor model

References in corpus (4)

• Angular Position of Nodes in the Superconducting Gap of Quasi-2D Heavy-Fermion Superconductor CeCoIn_5
• Interband proximity effect and nodes of superconducting gap in Sr2RuO4
• Ultrasound Attenuation in Sr${}_2$RuO${}_4$: an Angle-Resolved Study of the Superconducting Gap Function
• Transport and the Order Parameter of Superconducting Sr${}_2$RuO${}_4$

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• Theory of Transport Properties in the p-wave Superconducting State of Sr2RuO4 - A Microscopic Determination of the Gap Structure -
• Linear-response theory of the longitudinal spin Seebeck effect
• Determining the superconducting gap structure in Sr2RuO4 from sound attenuation studies below Tc
• Probing the d_{x2-y2}-wave Pomeranchuk instability by ultrasound
• Superconducting fluctuation corrections to ultrasound attenuation in layered superconductors
• Response, relaxation and transport in unconventional superconductors
• Low-$T$ Phononic Thermal Conductivity in Superconductors with Line Nodes
• Tight-Binding Superconducting Phases in the Unconventional Compounds Strontium-Substituted Lanthanum Cuprate and Strontium Ruthenate
• The Pairing Symmetry in the Ferromagnetic Superconductor $UG{e}_2$
• Multipolar Fermi Surface Deformations in Sr${}_2$RuO${}_4$ Probed by Resistivity and Sound Attenuation: A Window into Electron Viscosity and the Collision Operator
• Effect of superconducting fluctuations on ultrasound in unconventional superconductor
• The role of transverse anisotropic elastic waves and Ehrenfest relationships in the superconducting state of the compound Sr${}_2$RuO${}_4$