Thermal conductivity in a mixed state of a superconductor at low magnetic fields

A. A. Golubov; A. E. Koshelev

doi:10.1103/physrevb.83.094521

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arXiv · 1009.3517

Thermal conductivity in a mixed state of a superconductor at low magnetic fields

A. A. Golubov·A. E. Koshelev

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Abstract

We evaluate accurate low-field/low-temperature asymptotics of the thermal conductivity perpendicular to magnetic field for one-band and two-band s-wave superconductors using Keldysh-Usadel formalism. We show that heat transport in this regime is limited by tunneling of quasiparticles between adjacent vortices across a number of local points and therefore widely-used approximation of averaging over circular unit cell is not valid. In the single-band case, we obtain parameter-free analytical solution which provides theoretical lower limit for heat transport in the mixed state. In the two-band case, we show that heat transport is controlled by the ratio of gaps and diffusion constants in different bands. Presence of a weaker second band strongly enhances the thermal conductivity at low fields

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A. A. Golubov, A. E. Koshelev. 2011-01-24. Thermal conductivity in a mixed state of a superconductor at low magnetic fields. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.83.094521

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